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V Balakrishnan, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) candidate for the Bangalore Central constituency and former chief financial officer (CFO) of Infosys, is all praise for former colleague Nandan Nilekani’s Aadhaar project.
“I think Aadhaar is a very effective tool to help the subsidy distribution mechanism which the country currently lacks,” Balakrishnan told Business Standard over phone.
Nilekani is the face of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)’s flagship Aadhaar programme, which seeks to plug leakages in the current subsidy distribution mechanism by linking bank accounts of the beneficiaries with a unique biometric number card.
Nilekani is the Congress’ candidate for the Bangalore South constituency.
Interestingly, soon after he joined AAP in the first week of January, Balakrishnan had said in a television interview that he would campaign for Nilekani if the latter contested in the Lok Sabha elections.
Balakrishnan, whose candidature was announced a week ago, has his hands full as he is involved in various crucial roles in AAP such as the manifesto-making and fund-raising exercise.
He also said the AAP would not look to scrap subsidies, but would love to make use of technology to effectively distribute these — something the Aadhaar programme was also poised to do.
“It is not about subsidies but about how one delivers it and the party will lay emphasis more on that,” said Balakrishnan.
Notably, in this, the AAP and the Congress, beating whom the Arvind Kejriwal-led party debuted its political sojourn, are on the same page.
According to Balakrishnan, the AAP is “not wholly against” foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.
“If we find the circumstantial evidence that FDI in multi-brand retail can bring in employment and is for a larger welfare of the society, we may look to retract our stance on the same,” said Balakrishnan. He also pointed out that Delhi is an example where bringing in FDI in multi-brand retail was a move at the behest of small traders.
He said the party is open to FDI in all sectors except in the areas where government interference is a must such as defence and security sectors.
“Information Technology can play a crucial role in changing the political space in the country and bring in more transparency, something which the AAP vouches for.”
Balakrishnan said the party is not against the private distribution companies as seen in the case of Delhi, where the AAP had launched a scathing attack on the power distribution companies in its 49 days of power in the national capital.
“Private distribution companies are not bad. It’s just that they have to open themselves to audits,” said Balakrishnan.
