Change course: Aiyar to UPA

'The UPA may lose the aam admi's support if it continues current policies.'

With the UPA government completing three years in office, Union Minister Mani Shanker Aiyar has cautioned the Congress-led coalition that it could lose the support of aam admi (common man) if it did not undertake a course-correction in its economic policy.

"I fear that a government that is attempting to have an economic policy for the aam admi may not get the aam admi's endorsement. It is our job to understand this at the midpoint because that is where we are, and to take course correction," the Panchayati Raj Minister said.

In an interview to Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN programme 'Devil's Advocate', he said, "it is the job of any responsible Cabinet Minister to not only take into account what the (government's) achievements are but also what further needs to be done."

The minister said there was a "disproportionate benefit" of the 9.2 per cent growth rate going to the classes. "What I want to emphasise is not that there is no benefit going to the masses but that it needs to be much more consciously directed there," according to the TV channel's press release.

"Alarm bells should be rung. They absolutely should be rung," he said.

Aiyar said whether in cabinet or out of cabinet he had been stressing the need to constantly keep course-correction in mind.

He claimed his views have received "a very sympathetic response" from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who "absolutely" understood that the time for course correction has come.

Aiyar said that by expressing in public his differences with the government's policies and priorities, he was not worried that the prime minister might ask for his resignation.

In fact, he claimed, he has received "numerous" and "flattering" support from party colleagues.

At a recent CII conference, Aiyar had reportedly said that the masses determine who will form the government. But, the classes determine what the government will do, implying that government policies were not always in the best or complete interest of the majority of the people.

Asked if that meant that government's policies were unduly influenced by the elite interest, he said, "yes and I was also suggesting that if we are aware of this, then we can always take countervailing action. Industry interests need not necessarily be the country's interest."

Aiyar said in the last one month since his CII speech, no minister had told him that he should not have said it except the Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi.

Asked if he was suggesting that the aam admi is not always at the centre of government's policies, the minister said what he was trying to say was that "we ought to constantly remind ourselves of the NCMP commitment to aam admi and if there were any conflict between the interest of the growth rate and the interest of aam admi, we must take both into account before we take a decision."

"If we are framing an economic policy for a democratic polity then we must take into account the interest of the masses," he added.