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Journalism of Courage
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s first Independence Day address will be remembered more for what it did not state. He desisted, mercifully, from unleashing more paper pledges, more dream schemes. The nation is quite clearly suffering from a promise overload and a performance deficit. There is something about the ramparts of the Red Fort that tends to make prime ministers acutely conscious of their vote-garnering responsibilities. Manmohan Singh, wisely, resisted the cynicism and partisanship of such an approach by succinctly stating for the record that he has 8220;no promises to make8221; but 8220;promises to keep8221;. Indeed, the unfulfilled promises made from these precincts, beginning with Jawaharlal Nehru8217;s 8216;Tryst with Destiny8217; peroration, could be the stuff of innumerable Independence Day speeches!
There is another aspect of Singh8217;s address that deserves comment, and that is his attempt to impart political and social value to economic reform. He is, possibly, the first prime minister to have done so. Even as Manmohan Singh emphasised the requirement of equitable development, he pointed out that higher economic growth, private enterprise and individual initiative are resources that necessarily need to inform the task of governance and nation-building. He outlined with telling simplicity the raison d8217;etre of the economic reform process that he, as the country8217;s finance minister, had set in motion over a decade ago: liberating individual enterprise from the stranglehold of bureaucracy. Of course, as the prime minister underlined, no reform of any kind is possible without the reform of government. Everything hinges on the ability of those who make up the government to deliver and in order to do this effectively they should be sure of the areas which need their direct intervention and those which do not.
