Excerpts from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks at the release of book “An Agenda for India’s Growth: Essays in Honour of P. Chidambaram” in New Delhi Wednesday evening:
“(From the beginning) Chidambaram was one of the strongest advocates of economic reforms whenever the programme, came under attack, both in the Union Cabinet, and also in the wider political arena.
“Reforms don’t happen just because there is a professional consensus. They happen when the political leadership of the time decides to back these initiatives.
“We have to build a sufficiently wide political consensus in favour of the policies we wish to adopt. Having a parliamentary majority alone is not enough, because there are differences within parties. For reforms to be credible it is necessary that a wide cross section of society should understand the need for and accept the policy changes that a government wishes to introduce.
“The 1991 reforms did not happen suddenly. They were preceded by a push in that direction in the second half of the 1980s, by the Congress government under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress Manifesto in the 1990 election also gave a very strong reform message. When the Congress government was formed in 1991, under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, his leadership and support for reforms was equally crucial.
“(Attributing to an article on Chidambaram by Montek Singh Ahluwalia in the book) The fact that within a few weeks of taking over his first economic ministry, he brought about radical changes in trade policy, which many academics had advocated for many years, is a tribute to the high qualities of his leadership.
“The last couple of years have been challenging not only for India, but for the whole world. We must now view this as a short term deceleration. Our government is determined to once again accelerate the pace of change. Once again, we will prove the naysayers and Cassandras of doom wrong.
“I have no doubt that we will deliver results and once again place India on the path of high and socially inclusive growth.
“The people of India expect this. The world expects and awaits this. Let me assure you, we will not disappoint.
