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`Implementation failed Nehruvian socialism'

Staff Correspondent

Amarinder Singh released the Punjabi version of Gurcharan Das's book `India Unbound'

CHANDIGARH: "Failure of the Nehruvian socialism is not the fault of ideology, but of implementation... Reforms is the right and the rational thing to do," noted writer, Gurcharan Das, who claims to be the "cheer leader for reforms" said when the Punjabi version of his book `India Unbound' was released here.

Speaking at a function in the Chandigarh Press Club on Thursday evening, Mr. Das explained the book as an attempt to explain how a rich nation (India) became poor and was now on the threshold of becoming rich again. He said that India was the land of opportunity and challenges in the 21st century as it had begun to "unbind itself".

Mr. Das went to say that he was not satisfied with the performance of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, in pushing the reforms regime towards a desired momentum.

Suggesting that Dr. Singh would do well if he came on television periodically to explain how the reforms would actually benefit the nation and its poor, Mr. Das expressed his concerns about the people being held hostage to the ideology of the Left.

Welcoming that the government had reduced the "Inspector Raj" in the Industrial sector, Mr. Das served a panacea to deal with the Agrarian crisis by recommending more reforms, move from peasant farmer mode to an agri-business culture, encourage scientific farming and create more open markets.

Releasing the Punjabi version titled, "Aseem Bharti Virsa - Gurbat taun Khushali Da Safar", Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh commended the work, which he said had portrayed the panoramic view of the last 50 years of Indian history undergoing different phases of economic and social transformation. He expressed confidence that this work in political economy would afford an opportunity to the politicians, academicians and especially from the younger generation to have first hand information how the slow pace economy had transcended on to a high growth trajectory.

In his address, the Editor-in-Chief of the Tribune group of newspapers, H.K. Dua, while avoiding to be "dangerously optimistic" as Mr. Das was, said that caste discrimination, criminalisation of politics, corruption growing to levels where people lost faith in the system and growing numbers of the educated unemployed often created conditions that derailed the political system and slowed the reforms process. He said that benefit for maximum number of people, especially the poor sections, should form the core of any reforms process.

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`Implementation failed Nehruvian socialism'

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