Even as captions of industry at CII AGM were waiting for Prime Minister Manmohan as to what he has to say on the current status of the economy and suggest remedies, Singh didn’t disappoint them. It was a rare occasion when audience enjoyed each and every moment of his speech on the current economic scenario and gave him spontaneous applause whenever they felt like.
In fact, he acted as a good stepping stone to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who is to address the CII event on Thursday by edorsing the need for growth that uplifts the poor with the acknowledgement that though current 5 per cent growth rate was disappointing, people should be optimistic. To bolster his point, he made reference to his last address to the same group in 2007, when India's economy had grown at about 9 per cent in each of the three previous years Singh said: “In 2007, I often heard it said that Govt had become irrelevant because India will grow at 9 percent whatever the Government does. The consensus today is that unless the Govt acts swiftly, our growth, which has already decelerated, will be perennially stuck at 5 per cent. His comment invited loudest clap by the audience.
When he was about to conclude his speech, it seemed, he was able to connect with business leaders ."If PM says certain things, you take it seriously. If you don't take that seriously, who would you take seriouslyIJ I think he has made a positive statement,” said Bajaj Group Chairman Rahul Bajaj.