 "PM worst victim of ideological intolerance, says Jaitley")
"Dadri was a stray incident. It was both unfortunate and condemnable. The guilty will be taken to task. Notwithstanding such aberrations, India remains a highly tolerant and liberal society. Our cultural values have imbibed co-existence. India has repeatedly rejected intolerance. It does not respond to provocations," Jaitley said in his blog on 'ease of doing business'.
At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, Rajan had called for an improved environment for tolerance and mutual respect. On Saturday itself, Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy had said that the reality today was there was considerable fear among minorities.
More From This Section
Jaitley said it was incumbent upon every well-wisher of India and the present government to make sure that no action or statement of his provided a tool in the hands of those who wanted to obstruct India's growth story.
"The obstructers have a simple plan - if they can't fight politically, they fight with hostile propaganda," he said.
The minister accused the Congress, Leftist intellectuals and activists of unleashing propaganda that India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had become an intolerant society.
Jaitley slammed them for having continued to practice ideological intolerance towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for several decades and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been "the worst victim of this ideological intolerance" since 2002.
It was in February and March of 2002 that several parts of Gujarat, when Modi was that state's chief minister, witnessed communal riots. The BJP believes that the Congress, along with Leftist groups and activists, launched a motivated campaign not based on facts on communal riots, including the circumstances in which these had started in Godhra, to demonise Modi.
In his blog titled 'Ease of Doing Business', Jaitley said while the government was trying to accelerate India's growth, there were many who had never intellectually accepted the idea of the Bharatiya Janata Party being in power. He said the strategy of the Congress, Leftists and activists was twofold - obstruct Parliament and do not permit reforms which would bring credit to the Modi government, and secondly, create an atmosphere through structured and organised propaganda that there was social strife in India.
"They wish to project India as an intolerant society. The truth is otherwise. Perpetrators of this propaganda never allowed alternative viewpoints to grow either in universities, academic institutions or cultural bodies that they have controlled. Their intolerance extends to not accepting an alternative ideological pole," Jaitley said.
The FM welcomed the World Bank upping India's 'Ease of Doing Business' ranking by 12 positions - from 142 in 2015 to 130 in 2016. He said this was numerically modest but marked the reversal of an adverse trend. "Considering the number of steps taken in the last 17 months, India's position should have moved significantly higher," Jaitley said, but added that the World Bank did not factor in all the steps taken by the government because it waits for announcements to translate them into action.
"Quicker decision making, faster policy changes, eliminating corruption at the top and smoother clearances have played a significant role," Jaitley said. He said the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) clearances and the environmental approvals are being routinely granted and investors no longer queue up before the ministries in Delhi to lobby for policy changes or approvals.
The finance minister said it was encouraging to see "competitive federalism" among the states. He said the Gujarat model of Global Investors Meet has been replicated in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab. Rajasthan, this month, would be wooing global investors. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been reaching out to investors globally. Three states with a significant tribal population - Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha - figure in the top six states in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings.
"The work culture is changing in most States," Jaitley said. The minister said the Centre issued two important ordinances last week. He said the arbitration law has been changed to make arbitrations cheaper, faster and free from judicial intervention. "To adjudicate quickly upon investment related matters, a commercial division is being constituted in all high courts. This would improve the enforceability of contracts where India's ranking is relatively poor," Jaitley said.
He said the obsolete Specific Relief Act, which provides for damages as the normal remedy rather than enforcement, needs to be relooked. "Having opened most sectors for foreign direct investment, time has come to examine whether some of the conditionalities on which FDI (foreign direct investment) is permitted, have become anachronistic."
"We need to cut down on the number of permissions required so that the time lag between the decision to invest and the actual investment can be shortened significantly. States must realise that local laws which enable availability of land, environmental permissions, sanction of building plans need a relook," he said.
Jaitley asked whether there should be a need for individual structures requiring separate environmental approval once an industrial zone or new township has been cleared for environmental sanctions. "Many countries have switched to an architect's certificate as a substitute for building plans being sanctioned," he said. The minister said when a completion certificate was compulsory for a building, the permission required for start of construction should be replaced by a regulatory mechanism. "These additional changes will further improve India's ranking for ease of doing business," he said.
The FM said the ease of opening business must also be accompanied by an ease in exiting. He said the framework of the bankruptcy law is being readied. Dispute resolution with regard to public projects required a quicker settlement mechanism and was being worked out, he said.
Jaitley also called for corrections in some obsolete provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act to empower public servants take simpler and bolder decisions. The amendments have been introduced in Parliament.
"To add a percentage or two in our present growth rate, the ease of doing business coupled with a simpler direct and indirect taxation system, a higher investment in infrastructure and irrigation will play a significant role. A low oil and commodity regime is helping us in this direction," the finance minister said.