Comments on: “Robbing Peter To Pay Paul”

By: aman k

aman k — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 14:55:37 +0000

Sorry for joining late. You guys are doing a fantastic job – spreading awareness about democracy, economy, Manmohan Singh (the little, poor, duhlin’), left. Someone said, the ruler did not like the people, impeached them and got a new people to be elected by. I guess that should be our goal. As if it was not bad enough living in a poor country – now we have blokes on TV talking about those bhikharis too. O World Bank, where art thou?

By: Rahul M

Rahul M — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 17:21:21 +0000

Manmohan Singh a Good Man

Well he is a good man I believe(n i stand by them). Kindly remember the 1991 opening of the Indian Market when he, Chidambaram and Narsimha Rao were there at the centre.

As of now, I personally feel he never expected to be the PM.(who knows he may have not anticipated the Congress to win- which is a different matter). But he’s being made a scapegoat between the Congress,the politics(votebank included), 23 party UPA n fools in the same such as Lalu and Mayawati w/o whom the coalition would crash down. The same goes for Chidambaram. Though a good intellectual, he’s also made to be “just another minister” in the UPA.

By: Amit Varma

Amit Varma — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 13:52:27 +0000

“manmohan singh is a good man ? what does that mean?”

Nothing in the context of being PM. Agree with everything you said, kuffir.

By: kuffir

kuffir — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 13:46:27 +0000

manmohan singh is a good man ? what does that mean.?it’s been eighteen months since he took over and we haven’t seen a single sign of his having a mind of his own, leave alone a good one. the left pushed through the extravagant employment guarantee act, blocked every effort to increase investment in key sectors, hiked ‘security’ for organized sector employees and generally pushed its own agenda through the government without actually being a part of it. manmohan singh has finally succeded in making the prime minister’s post just as ceremonial as the president’s.

By: Sandeep

Sandeep — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 12:58:48 +0000

Was it Churchill who said socialism means distributing misery equally?

By: Vivek G

Vivek G — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 11:07:38 +0000

Thanks Amit. You are right. Goodness does no resolve poverty (sigh!). The PM is known to be an admirer of Mrs Thatcher. If only he had her courage of conviction and acumen.

By: aak

aak — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 09:34:31 +0000

The common minimum programme talks about devolving full managerial and commercial autonomy to the profit making Public sector undertakings operating in competetive environment.It will interesting to know how CPM or the left front proposes to achieve that without resorting to creeping privatisation

By: Amit Varma

Amit Varma — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 06:03:43 +0000

I’m not sure how much of a man of conviction Manmohan really is. I’ve been reading some old pre-liberalisation speeches and writings of his recently, and in all of them he determinedly sits on the fence, saying pretty much nothing and not taking a stand. Had the balance-of-payments crisis not existed in 1991, I doubt the reforms would have happened out of conviction.

That said, one can never tell for sure from the outside. It could also be that, like Arun Shourie in the BJP govt, he’s decided that some reforms are better than no reforms, and he’ll be pragmatic and hang on in there and do whatever little he can. But he isn’t doing terribly much, and the Left and Sonia seem to be running the country together. That’s a worry.

There’s a no question, though, that he’s a good man. But goodness alone doesn’t generate prosperity and employment.

By: Vivek G

Vivek G — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 18:31:36 +0000

Does it look like Manmohan Singh (a good man) has made a faustian deal with the left? History will judge his legacy and one hopes at some point he will follow his convictions rather than the path of political convenience.

By: Prashant Kothari

Prashant Kothari — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:57:08 +0000

Interesting to revisit Surjit Bhalla’s column from just four months ago

http://indianeconomy.org/2005/08/06/manmohan-singh-finally-flexing-his-muscles/