Economist Vijay Kelkar terms Team Anna’s open criticism of politicians as unfortunate.
Internationally acclaimed economist, Padma Vibhushan Vijay Kelkar, said that we needed to be grateful to our nation’s politicians for all the positive reforms that had taken place in independent India.
Kelkar was delivering his keynote address after receiving the ‘Praj Industries Maha-Intrapreneur lifetime achievement award 2011’ in the city on Saturday.
Kelkar, who was till recently the chairman of the finance commission, Government of India, said that the present day cynicism regarding politicians in the country was not a good sign.
Referring to Anna Hazare’s ongoing campaign for a Jan Lokpal bill, Kelkar said, “It is unfortunate that politicians are being criticised so openly. We need to be grateful to our political system.”
Explaining the manner in which national reforms are created, Kelkar said, “The essential direction is always provided by our politicians. The technical details are worked out by bureaucrats. If the reforms fail, it is because of inadequate work done by civil servants.”
Kelkar cited the freeing of Indian exports, the decontrolling of vaccines and revisions in the oil and petroleum policy as some of the successful reforms that he had been associated with.
According to Kelkar, this had resulted in India crossing the $20 billion exports mark, becoming the number one vaccine producer in the world and also tapping several indigenous oil fields.
However, chief guest of the function, chairman of Force Motors,
Abhay Firodia disagreed with Kelkar’s take on politicians. Firodia said, “I am a supporter of Anna and I feel that the Indian system of politics is hopeless. Politicians may have brought about reforms, but they did so only because of opportunism or helplessness, certainly not values. We badly need values in public life.”
Earlier in the evening, Praj Industries, with the knowledge support of Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), awarded 6, Maha-Intrapreneur awards, 3 to working professionals from not-for-profit organisations and 3 to working professionals from the corporate sector. Executive chairman, Praj Industries Limited, Pramod Chaudhari, explained that the Maha-Intrapreneur awards were given to men and women who exhibited ‘intrapreneurial skills’ (entrepreneurial skills within their organisations).
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