Activism of vested interests hurting governance: Praful Patel, Union Heavy Industries Minister

MUMBAI: Union Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel has expressed concern over hyper-active vested interest groups derailing the decision-making process at both the centre and the states.

“Unless there are some extreme steps taken the situation could worsen,” Patel warned. Speaking with reporters at the launch of Nationalist Congress Party’s social media and digital platform, Patel said the NCP holds PM Manmohan Singh in high regard and believes that he has not done anything wrong during his tenure.

“Every politician and bureaucrat in Delhi and Mumbai with whom I have spoken to in the last few weeks has told me that they are scared to take any decision or clear any file because they fear that in due course some vested interest group might allege corruption or wrongdoing behind that clearance. The decision-making process in the government has almost halted,” said Patel.

“We (NCP) hold the Prime Minister in high regard and believe that whatever decisions he took during his earlier or current tenure were in public interest. Many of us have taken certain policy decisions, which we thought, were best at that point, but in hindsight some agency comes out with findings that are adverse. This is a very discouraging and dangerous trend. All this is happening because of over-activism”, Patel added.

“The CAG is questioning many decisions of various ministries in hindsight. Then it leads to a controversy and politicians are bureaucrats are held responsible for alleged wrongdoing. Everybody is suffering because of this,” Patel said.

Patel also spoke about the seat sharing discussions between the Congress and NCP for 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. “Some leaders from our allies in the state are finding some problems in the seat sharing. But at the top level there are no issues”, Patel said in an indirect reference to Congress state president Manikrao Thackeray who has been making statements about how the Congress-NCP talks are inconclusive.