The Congress today claimed that the people’s lack of confidence in the government is visible in private investments in the country which are on a downslide. The co-chairman of the Economic Affairs Cell of the Congress and senior economist Arjun Sengupta today said that, ‘‘Despite claims like India Shining, private investment — which is the best indicator of people’s confidence in a government — is going to have a negative growth rate.’’ Speaking of the Congress’ vision document on economic policy, Sengupta said: ‘‘The Congress, when it comes to power, will suggest how to achieve an economic growth rate of 8-10 per cent along with fulfilling its social objectives.’’ Stressing that the Congress has not moved away from the reforms initiated during Congress regimes, he said: ‘‘Only the Congress knows how to let the reforms work. It is proved by the fact that public confidence in the government was so high that the private investments were at an all-time high of 17 per cent per annum during the Congress governments’ tenure which has never been achieved since then.’’ ‘‘A Congress government will regenerate the confidence in order to attract both domestic and foreign investments,’’ he added. He also said that the Congress policy has always been that profit-making public sector undertakings should not be disinvested and that there should be a transparent policy about the issue. The party’s vision document, which is yet to be finalised, would also bring a method of ‘‘accountability’’ for the states’ expenditure.
