Akhilesh Yadav blames PM for economic crisis

It is an open secret that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is mainly responsible for the economic crisis of India. He pretends to be straightforward and innocent, whereas actually he is not so. Dr. Singh himself is saying that India's economic situation has gone from bad to worse and the level of living of a large proportion of the county’s population has deteriorated over the years. In 1991, India's then Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, chose Dr. Man Mohan Singh as his Finance Minister. As India's Finance Minister at that time, Dr.Singh was the main architect of the neo-liberal economic policy which revolved around liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. In 1993, Dr. Singh offered to resignation the post of Finance Minister after a Parliamentary Investigation Report criticised his Ministry for not being able to foresee the multimillion securities scandal, which was not accepted by Mr. Narasimha Rao. Critics say that as the Finance Minister during 1991-1996, Dr.Singh did not shine except in faithfully implementing the IMF-dictated policy, i.e. Structural Adjustment Porgramme (SAP). In the 1994 general election the Congress Party emerged as the single largest Party and the new government was formed by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) with the left parties supporting from outside. To the dismay of many senior congressmen, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, the Congress President, chose Dr. Manmohan Singh to lead the Government. In 2009, Dr. Singh was again chosen by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi to head the UPA II government. But during his period as Prime Minister, Dr.Singh is reported to have failed to curb various scams, sandals and frauds perpetuated by crony capitalists and greedy bureaucrats. As a result, resources of the country have been looted by crony capitalists with the active support of corrupt politicians and connivance of bureaucrats. The country is reported to have lost lakhs of corers of rupees, which could have been used to promote investment and provide welfare measures to the down-trodden people. The criticism is that Dr.Singh has been keeping silence over the organised looting. But many believe that he was not a silent spectator, but an active participant in the scams, particularly in the “coal-gate scam” which has caused a loss of about Rs. 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer and involved thousands of crores as bribe to politicians and bureaucrats. Reports show that the Prime Minister’s Office has definite role in the scam. By notifying the decision to allow 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail trade much against the sentiments and wishes of almost all political parties, the entire trading community, and, of course, the vast majority of the people of the country, Dr.Singh has skillfully diverted the attention of the people from the ill-famous coal gate scandal, which involved a loss of about Rs.1.86 lakh crores to the exchequer, besides thousands of crores  as bribe. Therefore, better late than never, it is good that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has openly stated that Dr. Manmohan Singh is responsible for the economic crisis of India. But it is unfair for him to say that SP has given support to the UPA government to keep communal forces out. He must realise that the people of India will never forgive him and the Samajwadi party for providing for UPAII to  remain afloat and lead the country towards   decay.

The Times of India, Sep 22, 2012.