Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said that the Congress has never made promises that cannot be fulfilled. The Prime Minister said that the party has set the agenda for the next 20 years and has addressed complex issues. Here's the full text of the Prime Minister's statement at the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party:
The recent Assembly elections have been deeply disappointing for us. As Soniaji has said publicly, we should introspect deeply and find out where we went wrong. I agree fully that is the right reaction.
However, we should also not despair for the General Election of 2014. Assembly elections in a few States are not necessarily an indication of what will happen in the General Election that follows some months later. We know this from the past. The NDA did well in the Assembly elections in some States in the year 2003, but it was the UPA that came to power in 2004.
The General Election next year will be fought on issues of national importance. While some of these very issues may have been involved in the Assembly elections, we will be judged in May 2014 by how we respond on national issues. Let me comment on what our approach should be.
First I feel the record of the UPA Government over the past nine and a half years needs to be projected more effectively to the people. Here are some facts and figures which deserve notice.
For the first 7 years of the UPA government from 2004-05 to 2010-11, a period which included the first global economic crisis, the economy grew at 8 percent per year. This is the highest growth in any seven year period in our history.
In 2011 we were hit by the second global crisis, ofEurozone sovereign debt. This led to a slowdown in growth in the whole world. India also slowed down to 6.3 percent in 2011-12, and then to 5 percent in 2012-13. It looks as if it may be about the same in 2013-14.
The slow down in growth to 5 percent for two years in succession has generated concern, especially in business circles. Some even think this has happened because the government doesn't care about growth, but only about inclusiveness. This is a completely mistaken impression. We care deeply about both.
There should be no doubt that growth revival is high on our agenda. True inclusiveness can only be achieved on the back of strong growth which will generate both the jobs that new entrants in the labour force need, and also the revenues to pay for programmes of inclusiveness.
We need to explain that the global downturn is part of the reason for the slow down to 5 percent. China and other emerging market countries have also slowed down. The countries of the Eurozone have had negative growth in both years.
We should also frankly accept that there have been domestic problems also. Clearances have slowed down which has affected large infrastructure projects. Part of the reason for the slowing down is that the bureaucracy is hesitant to take decisions because decisions have been questioned by the CAG and the CVC in an environment where everything is politicised.
We are trying to overcome these bottlenecks by taking projects that are held up, at the Cabinet level for decision making. We are beginning to have an impact, but it will take time to show. In retrospect, we should have done this one year earlier but let us recognise that correction is now underway.
To project our record to the people, it is relevant to ask whether the growth we produced has also been inclusive. We do not look for growth for its own sake. We do it because it will raise standards of living of the mass of our people. Has it done so? Again, the record speaks for itself.
Between 2004-05 and 2011-12, the percentage of the population below the official poverty line fell three times faster than it did in the earlier period. Some people have denigrated this by saying the poverty line is too low. In fact, the UPA raised the line in 2009 precisely for this reason. We are re-examining it in the light of continuing differences on this issue. But the important point is that even if the line is revised, it will not alter the fact that poverty declined much faster.
Earlier, because the percentage in poverty declined only modestly, the absolute numbers below the poverty line actually increased because the lower percentage was applied to a larger total population. Between 2004-05 and 2011-12, for the first time, the absolute number of the poor fell by 138 million.
Agricultural growth is critical for prosperity in rural areas. We achieved 3.7 percent growth per year in agriculture during the Eleventh Plan compared with only 2.4 percent in the Tenth Plan. We succeeded in increasing food-grain production to record levels. It is this success in food production that has enabled us to enact the historic Food Security law.
Rural wages in real terms have increased six times faster than in the period before 2004-05. This is good news for agricultural labour, and reflects the impact of faster growth in agriculture, faster growth in non-agricultural employment, and the effect of our innovative pro-poor programmes.
All these developments are reflected in real per capita consumption in rural areas which increased 4 times faster than in earlier years.
States that were considered backward, and were growing relatively slowly, are now growing at much healthier rates.
A major achievement of recent years is that almost all our children are now in school. In the area of health too, we have made progress. AIDS once posed a major health threat. Its incidence is low and falling. Polio has been eradicated. The incidence of malaria is falling. The infant mortality rate and the maternal mortality rate have both fallen significantly.
In the area of Infrastructure, we have built a record length of roads. Several new airports and metro railways have been built in the UPA period. Port capacity has expanded. A major thrust was launched in the Eleventh Plan to build infrastructure in the North East and this is continuing. A separate booklet is being circulated which gives a more detailed picture of our achievements.
Inflation is an area of weakness and we are criticised for it. It is true that the rate of inflation has increased, but this is primarily because food inflation has increased. As consumers we would naturally want food prices to be low but we must remember that those who produce food - whether it is foodgrains or vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk, meat etc. - gain from higher prices. To some extent our inclusive policies have put more money in the hands of the weaker sections and they naturally spend more on food. To keep prices in control we need to increase supplies and also improve marketing arrangements and logistics since most food items are perishable. The states have a big role in this effort and we need to engage them more actively.
There is at times a suspicion that high prices do not benefit the farmers but only the middlemen who create artificial shortages. This can only be controlled by the states under the Essential Commodities Act since all power vests with the states.
It must also not be forgotten that the Public Distribution System which provides food items at highly subsidized prices to a large section of our population acts as a cushion against rising prices.
I have taken a lot of time to explain this as the issues are complex and it is much easier to blame the Government than to understand them. The worry about inflation is legitimate but we should recognize that incomes for most people have increased faster than inflation. That is why real per-capita consumption and real wages have increased.
It is important to reflect on why we get less credit forour achievements than perhaps they deserve. The answer is that rapid economic growth, social change and political empowerment of the last decade has given rise to new aspirations, especially among the youth. The electronic media is quick to project visual evidence of progress in many parts of the country, especially in urban areas. The same media makes us more aware of the extent of deprivation which still affects many families. Insecurity for women and corruption at different levels are other area of focus.
In this environment, it is not surprising that governments are under pressure to deliver more and perform better. Political parties in opposition can exploit this to their advantage.
Corruption is a subject which figures high in the consciousness of the people and our government is often criticised for not doing enough to curb it. We have not eliminated corruption. But the fact is that we have done more than any earlier Government for bringing in transparency and accountability in the work of public authorities.
The Right to Information Act has empowered the common man in a major way and is responsible for bringing to light corruption that was earlier hidden. The Lokpal Bill was passed yesterday and represents a major strengthening of anti corruption. We have introduced a new Government Procurement Bill which will make the process of Government procurements and contracts much more transparent, thus reducing the opportunities for corruption.
The new Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Act replaced old and unfair colonial legislation with a new Act and will be much fairer to those whose land is acquired.
The public debate on corruption has been dominated by problems associated with the allocation of natural resources such as spectrum, coal and land. The Central Government is concerned only with spectrum and coal. Both have generated controversy, but it is important to realise that the controversy relates to the operation of a system of allocation which we did not invent.
We only continued with the system we inherited. There have been allegations of wrong doing in the allocation process in both spectrum and coal. We have initiated action under the law. Ministers and senior civil servants have been indicted.
What is more important and is not being projected sufficiently is that we have actually changed the system itself. Both spectrum and coal are now being allocated through auctions. There can be no scams in these areas in future. I believe we can genuinely claim credit for making this system change which no other government did. Critics will say we should have done it earlier. Perhaps in retrospect, we should have but in our system, change does take time.
To summarise, our past record, establishes our credibility for future action. We must build on our past successes and strengthen areas where performance has been weak.
On the economic front, we must project a vision of rapid economic transformation in a socially inclusive manner. We should offer the prospect of rapid and truly inclusive growth for the next twenty years. We have done it for the past ten years. We can do it for the next twenty.
Along with an economic agenda we must project a social and political agenda that must be based on the core values of the Congress Party. It must also emphasise the importance of having a secular and tolerant outlook and of displacing superstition by a scientific temper.
Unlike some other political parties, our work programme for the future must not be based only on promises which lie outside the realm of possibility, nor should we simply talk of firm leadership and decisiveness without talking of what the leadership will be used for and what decisions will be taken.
The fact is that India is in a critical stage of transformation. There are tensions in our neighbourhood and tensions in our own polity. There are tensions in our economy as there are in any emerging market economy coping with complex global changes. Simplistic slogans will not provide workable solutions. We need to handle issues with subtlety and sophistication. And we need to do it with humility.
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