No show at the WEF

Far too much of avoidable controversy has been generated by the decision of the prime minister to stay away from this year8217;s India Summ...

Far too much of avoidable controversy has been generated by the decision of the prime minister to stay away from this year8217;s India Summit of the World Economic Forum WEF. True, a prime minister need not always make himself available for such events, especially when there are so many business summits and conventions through the year at home and abroad.

Merely because prime ministers have addressed past summits of the WEF does not mean that they should do so year in and year out, unless they have a new message to convey. Since it appears that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee does not have any new message for investors at home or abroad, he may well have opted to stay away. That is not a big deal.

However, it is the business of key economic ministers in the government that they should try and make use of such opportunities. Hence the decision of finance minister Jaswant Singh to stay away from the summit, especially when he found time to watch a polo match on the weekend, is inexcusable.

At a time when there is so much debate on fiscal policies and serious concerns are being expressed about the sustainability of domestic deficits and debt, Jaswant Singh could have reinforced confidence in his leadership at the fisc by making an appearance at the India Summit.

More importantly, apart from addressing such negative concerns, he could have taken this opportunity to draw the attention of the international participants to the many positive steps he and the Reserve Bank of India have taken to move the economy closer to full capital account convertibility. Indeed, the government has a strong case even on such issues as privatisation and the case could have been articulated effectively by a senior functionary like Jaswant Singh.

His absence at the WEF is surprising and distressing. It shows that the government is shying away from using whatever platform is available to communicate a clear message to investors at home and abroad. It can argue, of course, that it prefers alternative fora to the one offered by the WEF, which is after all a private organisation in the business of business summitry.

That, however, is not the message so far communicated. Rather, those who have chosen to speak to representatives of the media on behalf of the government to explain away the absence of the PM and the FM from the summit have alluded to petty reasons with respect to protocol and organisational styles. At a time when the government8217;s reformist image has been dented and when a business summit is in fact discussing the policy implications of the government8217;s own Tenth Five Year Plan growth target of 8 per cent per annum, the WEF8217;s India Summit was a good opportunity that a visibly sulking government short-sightedly wasted.