Policy Consistency is the beauty of democracy:Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Policy Consistency is the beauty of democracy

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Presiding over a meeting on welfare measures to Backward Communities on Sunday the 3^rd December 2017 in Legislative Assembly Committee Hall, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao shared his views on wide range of issues from parliamentary democracy, policy consistency in a democratic polity, US and China struggle for supremacy on economic front, recently concluded Global Entrepreneurs Summit and Telangana economic buoyancy etc. Against this backdrop CM touched upon the conceptual framework of BC welfare, finally ending on the note that the BC representatives irrespective of their party affiliations should deliberate among themselves in a series of meetings and recommend to the government their consensus view point which would become a Government Order on BC welfare.  

            Arguing in favour of Policy Consistency, the CM said, “Only when there is an unambiguous understanding on various issues pertaining to people based on realities, then, the real benefit will accrue to the people. In a democratic set-up there is every possibility for a tremendous learning if only one starts thinking above party affiliations and bias. In the evolutionary democratic process there is a lot of reform in it implicitly.  In the Human Evolution this is a continuous process and goes on incessantly. Ours is a Parliamentary Democracy and we proceed always in the parliamentary democratic way. Of course, there are some countries which are ahead of us and others behind us in this process of democratic way of life. Whatever might be the direction of journey, one thing that must be adhered certainly is the Policy Consistency”. 

            Further dwelling on the subject, the CM said, “In a democratic system once in a stipulated time governments change, one political party giving room to its opponent. Correspondingly priorities might also change which is but natural and this is always in tune with the aims and objectives of the party that comes to power. However, there need not be obvious alteration in the country’s foreign policy or defence policy. Let me touch upon the Policy Consistency. The Global Entrepreneurs Summit was introduced by former US President Obama and the present President Trump who succeeded Obama continued with it. They both do not belong to the same political party”.

            Referring to the recently held GES, the CM said that the Telangana government did not spend any amount organising it. “In the recent past on a grand scale the Global Entrepreneurs Summit was organised in Hyderabad. Very few are aware of the whole gamut of this summit. Critics however made hostile comments on its expenditure incurred by Telangana Government. As a matter of fact, Telangana Government has not spent any amount on this”.

           Referring to the World Economic Forum meets CM said that “Yearly twice the World Economic Forum (WEF) meets in China. USA which has a dominant role in several fronts including economic is not in favour of WEF meets. Professor Klaus Schwab born in Germany is the founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. He along with few of his friends founded the Forum in 1971. This is a forum relating to the whole world and thinks globally and over a period it has taken a vibrant shape. World leaders line up in a queue to meet him and shake hands with him. USA has no role to play in WEF activity”.

The CM said, “Barack Obama while President of USA founded the Global Entrepreneurs Summit (GES) to checkmate WEF. So far it had seven summits and the eighth was held in Hyderabad. The present US President Trump made a request to our Prime Minister Modi to host the eighth summit and PM welcomed it. He entrusted the job to NITI Ayog. Eight states in India competed to host and finally Hyderabad was selected. With Telangana Government’s participation the summit was organized.  Not even a single rupee was spent for the summit by the Telangana Government. Not knowing the facts, critics unfortunately resorted to comments that crores of rupees have been spent by Telangana Government. Except for hosting a dinner to the participant delegates at Golconda Fort with Telangana Government expenditure that too with negligible amount, nothing was spent on the summit. Entire expenditure was born by the NITI Ayog”.

            On the need for all inclusive and participatory development process, the CM said, “We were all participants in the Telangana statehood movement. Let us all also be participants in its development. The state is moving tremendously on the economic front. There is no deficiency of what so ever it is. One should understand the difference between private budget and government budget. Planning precedes government budget and then accordingly mobilization of resources takes place. There would be budget estimates, revised estimates and then actuals and all this process will be very ambitious. In private budget spending is based on actual income and availability of money”.

            On the initial hiccups for the new State, the Chief Minister said, “While we were in 23 Districts Andhra Pradesh, we never reached the Budget Estimates. Our budget now amounts to Rs. 1,49,000 crores and we will certainly reach Rs. 1,25,000 crores. This is in other words Telangana with just 10 (erstwhile) districts will reach the estimates the same way united AP could reach in terms of figures. There was utter confusion when we assumed power in June 2014. There was tremendous non-cooperation from AP state. For nearly seven months there was acute shortage of All India Service and other officers. The present Telangana, economically speaking, was never in existence in the present form. It was only Hyderabad state. The present Telangana was the same as recommended by Fazalali Commission. In this form it was never in existence and as such it was difficult to arrive at a financial basis. First ten months it was all confusion. In the second financial year there was a little bit of better understanding including the positive and negative aspects of state financial character. We slowly became very strong and achieved excellent growth and could achieve addition FRBM of 0.5% from Government of India”.

            On the aim behind forming new districts, the CM said the small districts would ensure better reach to the Collectors as they have details of each and every family on finger tips. This would also ensure poverty alleviation to a great extent and will bring many above poverty level. Administration becomes easy said CM.