Smile on Left’s double-face: foreign experts to quit

Just days ago, he had sent a letter to Left leaders saying civil servants from the Planning Commission could not be expected to monitor work of civil servants in other Ministries and the commission needed to tap ‘‘enormous expertise’’ outside the Government.

Moreover, Singh has also insisted upon telling the two major world leaders he has met so far—British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London yesterday and US President George Bush this morning—that India will persist with the reforms process even as it simultaneously strives to uplift the weaker sections of the population.

‘‘India is fully committed to broadening and deepening the reform process at home,’’ Singh told Bush at an hour-long meeting at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, adding that New Delhi was ‘‘fully committed to further opening the economic system.’’

But the prime minister also pointed out that at the same time New Delhi had to consider ‘‘measures needed to address the deprived sections of society for the sake of political stability,’’ at home.

The offers of resignation by the five foreign consultants comes in the wake of a sustained campaign by the Left parties at home which had criticized the presence of ‘‘foreigners’’ in the mid-term appraisal of the current plan.

And not once mentioning that the CPM government in West Bengal was doing just the opposite, using McKinsey to revamp its agro and IT sectors, ADB to clean up the Kolkata Municipal Corporation mess and aid from the UK government to restructure its dying PSUs.

There will also be a meeting in New York between Ahluwalia, who is co-chairman of the Indo-US Economic Dialogue with Stephen Friedman, a former investment banker and now the economic policy assistant to President Bush.

The economic dialogue was set up in August, with Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran as deputy to Ahluwalia, to integrate foreign policy with ideas in the economic sphere. It has five components—finance and investment, commercial dialogue, trade policy, energy and environment.

Sources said the meeting between the two principals now even more signalled the Prime Minister’s determination to have other people ‘‘interact, cooperate and perhaps criticize India’s reform process.’’

Friedman, who is also the director of the US National Economic Council, has met Saran in Washington while his deputy Alan Larson, undersecretary for economic, business and agricultural affairs in the State Department, met Ahluwalia during his New Delhi visit last week.