Prez’s maiden address fails to impress the Left

NEW DELHI: President Pratibha Patil’s reference to the contentious India-US nuclear deal in her maiden address to a joint sitting of parliament, a day before Atomic Energy Commission chairperson Anil Kakodkar resumes the last round of talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, struck a discordant note in the UPA-Left ties even before the budget session got under way on Monday.

Not just the nuke issue, friction between the two parties was visible on several other issues, including the President’s failure to give any commitment on passing the much talked about women’s reservation bill, concrete steps to address farmers’ distress across the country, control prices of essential commodities, the claim of achieving “inclusive growth”, efforts to sustain growth while keeping prices under check and bid to “insulate the Indian consumer” from global inflationary trends.

In her address which sounded like an election speech highlighting a number of flagship projects initiated by the UPA government in the last three-and-half-years, Patil said: "It is our hope that the civilian nuclear cooperation with the USA and other friendly countries will become possible."

"Our relations with the United States of America have improved in the past few years and now span a wide spectrum, including high technology, space, agriculture, education and trade and other linkages." She also referred to New Delhi's improving ties with China and Russia.

Brushing aside criticism by the opposition and Left parties, the government also justified the rise in petrol and diesel prices. "World crude oil prices have almost doubled in the past two years to reach 100 dollars a barrel, yet my government has managed to moderate the impact on the domestic consumer," the President said.

Though she referred to a few women welfare measures, the first women President did not make any reference to the women quota bill, raising the hackles of the Left.

"My government remains firmly committed to ensuring that the economic growth process is socially inclusive, regionally balanced and environmentally sustainable. The measures taken by the government have created necessary architecture of inclusive growth," the President said.

She said the government's strategy of "inclusive growth" had contributed to the acceleration of economic growth. "For the first time in history the Indian economy has grown at close to 9% per annum for four years in a row," Patil said.

Later, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said: "The president's speech is a compilation of claims and achievements, but we have serious problems with the claim. The thrust on "inclusive growth" sounds hollow when what we have been experiencing is widening hiatus between 'shining India' and 'suffering India'. What sort of inclusive growth is the government talking about when "we have 36 billionaires but 78 per cent of Indians live on less than Rs20 a day… and every 30 minutes a farmer is committing suicide".

On the nuclear issue, Yechury said the President speech reflected the government's position, but "we reiterate that the deal is not in the interest of the country. It has implications for our foreign policy". When asked that there was speculation that the government may sign the deal by May-June and would the Left withdraw support if it happened, Yechury said he did not want to respond to rumours and that the understanding was that the government had to come back to the UPA-Left committee after the completion of IAEA talks.

Trashing the claim on containing the price rise, he said unless the government stopped forwarding trading in essential items inflation would not be controlled.

k_benedict@dnaindia.net