ATAL BEHARI VAJPAYEE - A MAN TO ADMIRE A leader of substance: Along with Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee laid the foundation of new India - By Arvind Panagariya Today, we celebrate the 88th birthday of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who, along with Narasimha Rao, must be credited with laying the foundation of the new India. To date, he also remains the only non-Congress prime minister to serve a full term. A member of Parliament for over four decades, Vajpayee served as Indias prime minister from March 1998 to May 2004. With Yashwant Sinha as finance minister on his side, he transformed the economic policy framework wholesale. Telecommunications, civil aviation, banking, insurance, public sector enterprises, foreign trade and investment, direct and indirect taxes, agricultural produce marketing, small-scale industries reservation, urban land ceilings, highways, rural roads, elementary education, ports, electricity, petroleum prices and interest rates were all subject to far-reaching reforms during his tenure. Contrary to sceptics expectations, these reforms yielded handsome results. In the last fiscal year of Vajpayees rule, 2003-2004, growth shifted to above 8% and remained there for almost a decade. Eventually, it was complacency toward reforms, brazen corruption and outright policy mistakes under the successor government that cut the growth rate by three percentage points. But, in the meantime, accelerated growth had helped cut the poverty rate by a wide margin. Unlike most modern day leaders, Vajpayee firmly opposed having any monuments or schemes named after him. Today, a minimal recognition of Vajpayee would be to rename PMGSY after him just as we have renamed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme after Mahatma Gandhi. Indeed, an even more appropriate recognition of this great son of India would be to honour him with the Bharat Ratna while he still lives. The writer is professor at Columbia University. more at: articles.timesofindia.indiatimes/2012-12-25/edit-page/35992135_1_reforms-national-interest-atal-bihari-vajpayee
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 15:51:45 +0000
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