The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the political rhetoric in the next six months will be critical for the Indian economy.
Addressing the 91st Annual General Meeting(AGM) of FICCI in the capital, Jaitley said industry bodies like FICCI would do well to impress upon political parties the importance of good economic policies and how these can be blended with good politics.
Jaitley asked apex industry bodies to not get provoked or upset over the political rhetoric in the next six months, but focus on how India’s policies could be continued for the next decade on a stable platform.
Asserting that India needs a “decisive leadership” and not fragile coalitions (from the upcoming general election) to keep the growth momentum going, Jaitley said there was a need for policy clarity and stability to help the country move into a growth trajectory higher than the current 7-8 per cent.
India should not get itself into a situation where the direction of policies leads to a “helpless Centre” and a “Confederation of States” instead of preserving the Constitution provided structure of “Union of States”, he said.
Without directly naming the ruling party BJP, Jaitley merely said it is only decisive leadership that will ensure India remains a fast growing market economy along with social consciousness in the years to come.
What is lacking?
Jaitley maintained that the quality of public discourse needs to be vastly improved and felt that FICCI should contribute to achieve this improvement. Referring to the public discourse on the recent skirmish between the Government and the RBI, Jaitley said that Government respects the autonomy and independence of the RBI.
“What is wrong in Government bringing to the notice of the RBI that its policies are falling short of the expectations of the market. Can’t the concerned elected sovereign Government flag issues of credit and liquidity with the central bank?”, Jaitley said.
Bringing the challenges that need to be addressed to the attention of RBI cannot be seen as an aberration (of autonomy), but only be viewed as a necessity, he said.
Infact, Jaitley even felt that industry bodies like FICCI and CII should have approached the RBI — instead of just the Government — to pour their woes around liquidity crunch and sensitise the regulator on this front.
Jaitley said all fiscal targets set for the current fiscal would be met and that India would comfortably achieve 7-8 percent growth rate this fiscal.