The RSS by Dinesh Narayan

Author:Dinesh Narayan [Narayanan, Dinesh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789353057992
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2020-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

The speech was a classic in balancing acts. There were built-in cushions for anticipated punches, both from the opposition and from within the Congress party as Rao had foreseen.

Singh paid encomiums: ‘Thanks to the efforts of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, we have developed a well-diversified industrial structure. This constitutes a great asset as we begin to implement various structural reforms.’ Then, he tagged criticism to praise. ‘However, barriers to entry and limits on growth in the size of firms, have often led to a proliferation of licensing and an increase in the degree of monopoly. This has put shackles on segments of Indian industry and made them serve the interests of producers but not pay adequate attention to the interests of consumers.’

In the course of his epoch-altering effort, Singh rewrote the way Indians had perceived wealth, poverty, development and their social interplay. He gave wealth creation respectability and hitherto withheld government sanction. ‘We must restore to the creation of wealth its proper place in the development process. For, without it, we cannot remove the stigma of abject poverty, ignorance and disease. But we cannot accept social misery and inequity as unavoidable in the process of creation of wealth.’

Singh went on to describe in detail the adjustments he was making to the government’s economic policy. He ended his speech with the now famous flourish:

I do not minimize the difficulties that lie ahead on the long and arduous journey on which we have embarked. But as Victor Hugo once said, ‘No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.’ I suggest to this august House that the emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea. Let the whole world hear it loud and clear. India is now wide awake. We shall prevail. We shall overcome. 36

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