On the occasion of hoisting the national flag from the ramparts of historical Red Fort in Delhi to mark the beginning of 66th year of India’s independence, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh touched upon a host of subjects associated with the development, security and stability of the country. He spoke more about domestic affairs, particularly relevant to the areas of economy, development, public health, education and security. In a somewhat unusual manner, the Prime Minister told the nation that one of the reasons of slow down of our development speed was the lack of political consensus on various important national issues. The statement assumes significance as the Government has been facing the charge of policy paralysis with key economic reforms decisions, like FDI in retail, being stuck due to opposition by allies. But he was quick to add that India’s economic progress was closely linked to the global economic factor and we could not play the lone fiddle.
The Prime Minister did not elaborate on the progress made by the country during past eight years of the UPA Government headed by him. This was perhaps because the problems facing the Government and the nation today are of much greater concern to the public. Twice did he refer to Government’s urge to bring in the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill so that a strong measure is adopted to contain corruption among governing functionaries. But he warned that bringing false and baseless allegations against the Government functionaries would not help in uprooting the malaise of corruption. There is a legal and administrative system in place to deal with such situations and the Government was taking steps to improve and streamline the system. The Prime Minister said that he was aware that the civil society resented corruption and the Government was bound to take all measures necessary to provide clean and transparent governance to the nation.
The Prime Minister indirectly admitted that the speed of economic progress of the country was a matter of concern to him. He made it clear that the Government was willing to provide all facilities and incentives for foreign investment in the economic system of the country. He thinks that the new taxation rules had created some doubts in the mind of prospective investors from abroad but promised that nothing will be done to impede foreign investment. It was so because this kind of investment was very crucial to rapid recovery of our economic health. He promised that the nation would fare better during the current year. Though the occasion is not one which the Prime Ministers usually choose to make any major announcements about new national projects and schemes or any drastic change in policy matters, yet Dr. Singh took the opportunity and said that several far-reaching reforms in the administrative sphere were on the anvil and would be announced soon. These essentially pertained to public health, education and employment areas. He said that it was the considered opinion of the Government that providing training in various skills was a sound and dependable method of overcoming unemployment among the youth. Thus the constitution of a National Skill Development Authority was proposed and in next five years nearly 8 crore people would benefit from this scheme. It will go a long way in lowering our unemployment level besides creating a vast skilled human resource reservoir.
While the Prime Minister highlighted some of the major areas in which the country has to do more, he did not give room to despondency and pessimism in any way. Like an astute statesman, he confidently asserted that the Government would take due note of certain shortcomings and failures but would take these as challenge to bring in suitable reforms. We have the potential to overcome all challenges, economic, political and security related matters. Since development and progress of the country depend largely on the security environment, the Prime Minister referred to Naxalism in some parts of the country and externally sponsored armed insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. However, he has emphatically stated that the overall situation had improved to a great extent in the border State. Certain measures taken by the Government have yielded good results and the situation in insurgency infested parts of the country is gradually coming under control. In summing up, the Prime Minister has exuded confidence in his Government rising to the challenges facing the country. We wish him success in his efforts.
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