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Arati R Jerath
NEW DELHI, August 27: In one swift stroke yesterday, the Prime Minister's Office assumed for itself the role of a super finance ministry. With two panels of high-powered economists and industrialists to advise him, Vajpayee appears to be making a strong bid to have a greater say in his government's economic policies which till now were the copyright of the swadeshi lobby running North Block.
The sudden assertion by South Block on the economic front has sent ripples through bureaucratic and industry circles. They see it as a move to marginalise the swadeshiwallahs and push ahead with reforms to revive a stagnant economy. They also see it as an attempt by Vajpayee to shore up his sagging image.
Although the panels are advisory in nature, they will provide the PMO with inputs to make substantive interventions in economic policy. This was an area from which Vajpayee scrupulously stayed away after he was stopped by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from appointing Jaswant Singh as finance minister. The situation seems to have changed with the induction of former revenue secretary NK Singh as Secretary in the PMO. First, the PMO overruled the swadeshi lobby and posted a man with ``liberal'' credentials as the new Finance Secretary, Vijay Kelkar. Now comes the creation of the two panels. Singh is member-secretary of both, giving him an opportunity to be the interface between the PM and industry, traditionally the role of the finance minister.
There are significant omissions in the councils which will be headed by the PM himself. The Bombay Club of industrialists - strong backers of the Bharatiya Janata Party's swadeshi agenda - does not have a single representative in the panel of trade and industry. The economists on the other council cover the spectrum from left-of-centre to right liberal. Again, the swadeshi element is missing.
In addition, the Finance Ministry is not represented on either body. The official explanation is that these are advisory councils to the PM, not the Finance Minister. But bureaucratic circles feel it is unusual to cut out the Finance Ministry completely from its own area of operation.
The reaction from Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha was typically ambiguous. In a brief word with television correspondents today, he welcomed the PMO's decision, describing it as an ``attempt by us'' for better partnership with Indian industry.
The impetus for the PMO to intrude into Sinha's turf appears to come from the widespread criticism of his ``swadeshi'' budget which was attacked for not doing anything for an ailing economy, battered by an industrial slowdown and dwindling investor confidence.
The last straw was the public concern expressed by the BJP at its National Executive meet in Jaipur last week over rising prices. In fact, the party leadership is extremely worried on the price front with assembly elections due in three states in October-November.
For Vajpayee, the continuing criticism, much of it from the Government's own support base, has been almost a personal affront. But after nearly six months of ambivalence, the PM seems to have decided to `just do it'. In the process, he may have stirred up a hornet's nest. The swadeshi lobby can hardly sit back and watch its agenda put on the backburner. Vajpayee may find himself in the thick of an economic war.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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