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Back to Avadi - The Financial Express
Editorial
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11 August 1997
Title: Back to Avadi
Author: Editorial
Publication: The Financial Express
Date: August 11, 1997
The Congress is back to socialism and lo! who has proclaimed the return of
the prodigal son to the home which he had deserted six years ago - Manmohan
Singh who was widely seen as the architect of reform? Yet, this is really
not extraordinary for either the party or Singh himself After all, both
were totally for State-led development before the mid-1991 switch to a
programme of structural adjustment. But then, a party that before PV
Narasimha Rao's poll debacle had deemed liberalisation an irreversible
process cannot now declare that development necessarily had to be on the
path charted at the Avadi session way back in 1955 when everyone swore by
social justice. At the height of the reform euphoria the mantra that was
chanted was one of Rao and reform. Now the slogan is Kesri, keep to the
left. It is clear that Kesri's supporters want nothing in the party's
policies to remind Congressmen of what Narasimha Rao had done. Hardly the
best foot forward by a leadership that seeks to come back to power at the
centre in less than two years from now.
Even if the retreat to Nehruvism is given the tactical explanation that it
is better to join those whom you cannot beat, the Leftists and Swadeshi
wallahs, it does not still make sense. The party strategists, if there are
any, should realise that they are not in the shoes of Rajiv Gandhi in 1985
when he had to withdraw a draft economic resolution setting the agenda for
liberalisation under a perceived threat from the socialist diehards. True,
the Congress suffered serious poll reverses during the reform years but to
blame these on Rao's adoption of liberalisation in lieu of the old
Nehruvian policies is not even good politics, what to speak of good
governance. A national party that has been in power for long years and
wants to be in the gaddi once again cannot blow hot and cold on its
policies. Congress is much more than one individual, especially one like
Kesri. Surely, the latest breed of sycophants cannot believe as Barooah
had done before that like Indira Gandhi then the present chief represents
the nation.
As for Manmohan Singh's change of colours, any comment would seem totally
unnecessary. The man who was glorified the world over and was even voted
once during the reform period by the euromoney as the world's best finance
minister says it all now when he pronounces an adverse judgement, bordering
on repudiation, on what all he did in his earlier avatar.
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