"We have been waiting for a vision from the BJP government, we have instead been rewarded with diversion of the Ten Commandments... This 10-point agenda. I have been taken aback by the extraordinary jumble they have inflicted upon the nation", party spokesman Shashi Tharoor told reporters.
Dealing in detail with each of the point in the agenda, he wondered as to what purpose the document would serve.
"There are values, vision, approaches, ...Utter confusion as to what the purpose of the document is. Are these instructions... Do they constitute an agenda? Do they represent a manifesto, are they techniques of getting things done, nothing is clear.. It's all of the above and none of the above," Tharoor remarked.
On the Prime Minister's insistence on building up confidence in the bureaucracy and giving it the freedom to work, Tharoor recalled "since the days of Sardar Patel, which is often sighted by this government,there has been a very clear understanding that the best safeguard in our country to provide confidence to the bureaucracy is security of tenure and financial independence."
He said on the issue of autonomy in authority of bureaucrats such as the Durga Shakti Nagpal case, everyone saw the Congress president intervening immediately. "So we welcome the fact that the BJP has also decided to endorse the congress party's approach on bureaucracy."