Advani cracks the whip on India Inc

NEW DELHI: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on Saturday criticised business houses for misusing their “financial clout� to meddle in the affairs of the government and influence political processes and said that it vitiates the atmosphere for good governance.
Speaking at the inaugural of the 82nd annual session of Assocham, Advani said: “Corporate wrongdoing weakens common people’s support for liberalisation and economic reforms. It makes them feel that the reforms are only for the rich to get richer. They get a feeling that there is one law for the wealthy and those with connections and another for the ordinary masses.�
“Out of this thinking will grow the demand that if business houses do not show much commitment to following norms of good corporate governance, then the government better show the guts to govern them,� he said.
Referring to the string of corporate scandals world over, he said that these have punctured the hype that surrounded the technology-driven economic boom in the US in late 1990s.
“These scandals have not only exacerbated the economic slowdown but also shaken the confidence of the people around the world in the paradigm of unregulated liberalisation and globalisation,� Advani aid.
The Deputy Prime Minister said during the last 50 years our biggest mistake was to believe that converting `Swaraj’ into `Suraj’ was exclusively the domain of the government. “We made nation-building too government centric and the people too government-dependent,’’ he added.
In fact, he blamed the Congress, which had ruled India for the longest period after Independence. “They have much to answer for about the quality of governance and politics in this country,’’ he said.
Describing the NDA as a “political manifestation� of the “unity in diversity� that characterises India, Advani said that even if BJP achieves its goal of securing majority on its own in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, NDA won’t be dismantled.
Advani put the ISI network of Pakistan on the same scale of terror as the al Qaeda and Taliban. “World over, government’s should realise that and fight against it,’’ he said.
He described the recent attack on the Swaminarayan Temple as an act of terrorism aimed at the creating communal tension in the state of Gujarat.
Stating that the world can put pressure on Pakistan to a “certain extent�, he added that to defeat it, India was on its own.
Advani also referred to the “successful� completion of two phases of polling for the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly elections in the face of desperate attempts by terrorists to spread fear among the people.