Vayalar Ravi lashes out at corporate honchos for criticising government

NEW DELHI: Taking on the corporate honchos for their "unjustified" criticism of the UPA for policy paralysis, Union Minister Vayalar Ravi today said the government cannot "mortgage" people's interests to big business houses.

"The government cannot mortgage the people and their interest to the corporate houses," Ravi said.

He was asked to comment on concerns expressed by Azim Premji and Narayana Murthy on policy paralysis which they said had seriously affected the economic growth rate.

Calling the criticism "totally unjustified", Ravi said the corporate sector wants the government to make policies only to protect their interests.

"The criticism is (that) nothing is moving what they want us to move.... They want the government to take all policies to protect their interests," the Overseas Indian Affairs Minister said.

Noting that all major economies in the world are going through a very "difficult phase", he exuded confidence that Indian economy will come out of the current situation very soon, saying government was putting its best effort to improve the growth rate.

"We will overcome the situation.... The only unfortunate thing is that some corporate leaders are making bad comments. They are sending a bad message," Ravi said.

Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, had come down heavily on the government last week for the current state of affairs in the economy while Wipro Chairman Premji said "we are working without a leader as a country. If we do not change, we would be down for years."

Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily had already hit back at the corporate honchos saying "perceptions cannot undo fundamentals" and Azim Premji and Narayana Murthy should speak with optimism.