Agreeing there are serious issues with labour reforms and privatisation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that he is hopeful of getting the Left on board to push forward key economic reforms.In an interview with former McKinsey head Rajat Gupta in a special India issue of The Mckinsey Quarterly, Singh said he ‘‘hasn’t given up hope’’ and has full confidence in ‘‘the patriotism of our Left colleagues’’.‘‘Our role is to convince their (the Left) national leadership that what is good for West Bengal can also be good for the rest of the country,’’ said Singh, in a frank dissection of coalition politics. ‘‘As somebody said, a politician before he can become a statesman has to remain in office long enough. So we have to make these compromises.’’Asked about this statement today, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury today claimed there was no difference between his party’s New Delhi and Kolkata wings. And in a veiled swipe at Singh’s praises for the West Bengal Chief Minister, he said: ‘‘“Our suggestion to the PM is that you should emulate him (Buddhadeb), empower the landless, introduce reforms and implement his policies (in the rest of the country) and see how the situation improves.”In his Mckinsey interview, the Prime Minister agreed that ‘‘extreme rigidities’’ of the labour market have affected the country’s economic growth potential, but limitations of the coalition government prevented him from carrying out reforms in a ‘‘big way’’.This, he feels, ‘‘is not consistent in a world where demand conditions are changing so fast, technological conditions are changing so fast.” Here again he pointed towards Kolkata. ‘‘Our colleagues who are in government in West Bengal.do appreciate the need for labour market flexibility. It is my task to carry conviction to our Left colleagues in Delhi.’’The way forward, Singh says, ‘‘We have to look at the Southeast Asian example, and probably the Japanese.On privatisation, Singh put up a brave front. ‘‘Outside the navratnas, as I see it, the field is vastly open.’’ While Singh admitted that options were limited here, he did also point out that the West Bengal government is ‘‘moving, and moving forward,’’ in privatisation.At the same time, Singh stressed that this search for broad-based support would pay dividends. ‘‘We may be slow moving, but if we build a consensus that would be far more durable than any other mechanism that I know of.’’Putting FDI in retail on top of his reforms agenda, Singh said ‘‘I am convinced that we can work out a package that is fair, that entry of foreign enterprises into the retail trade will not hurt out small shopkeepers but will create a lot more employment.’’Admitting that he has his ‘‘task cut out’’, Singh said that over the next ‘‘four or five months’’ he would engage within the coalition to push through reforms in retail.On the general pace of FDI, Singh put the focus on infrastructure. ‘‘We may not be able to reach where the Chinese are today, but there is no reason why we should not think big about the role of FDI, particularly in the areas relating to infrastructure, where our needs for investment are very large.’’Emphasising the government’s rural focus, he pointed towards modernized agriculture that helps not only farmers, but also consumers. ‘‘I believe that we need a second green revolution,’’ he said. Apart from the Unified Food Bill—which is ready and will come to Parliament soon—Singh said ‘‘We must have electricity in our rural areas, we must have cold-storage facilities.’’
