Underlining the need for a sound political leadership to inspire governance as well as the economy, senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra on Saturday slammed the UPA Government for failing to revive investor sentiments and blaming states for the prevailing fiscal tension and policy paralysis.
Addressing the 86th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of industry chamber FICCI, Mitra said that looking at the current ills from which the India story is suffering, three key lessons need to be learnt. First among these, he said, is that a non political person cannot be the Prime Minister of a country, as Prime Ministership is not employment where the board of directors is situated somewhere else while the PM behaves like a hired CEO having no powers.
"The PM's word must be the last word in the Government. Prime Ministers must be the natural leaders of the country, certainly of their own Party and Government. Prime Ministers can never look helpless. Prime Ministers cannot go back with a feeling that I am not being allowed to deliver. If you were ever to come to a situation like this, you will never be able to hold that authority of the Government," he said.
Secondly, Mitra highlighted that the Government's focus should be on having higher growth rates so that it can implement schemes like poverty alleviation, rather than relying on populism. The third important lesson which the Government needs to learn is that it cannot be discriminatory to certain states (hinting at states ruled by the Opposition BJP) and should rather adopt a consensual approach in order to achieve economic stability, Mitra suggested.