As for my conduct, it is for this august House and the people of India to judge. All I can say is that in all these years that I have been in office, whether as finance minister or prime minister, I have felt it as a sacred obligation to use the levers of power as a societal trust to be used for transforming our economy and polity, so that we can get rid of poverty, ignorance and disease, which still afflict millions of our people. This is a long and arduous journey. But every step taken in this direction can make a difference. And that is what we have sought to do in the last four years. How far have we succeeded is something I leave for the people of India to judge.
When I look at the composition of the opportunistic group opposed to us, it is clear to me that the clash today is between two alternative visions of India’s future. The one vision, represented by the UPA and our allies, seeks to project India as a self confident and united nation moving forward to gain its rightful place in the comity of nations, making full use of the opportunities offered by a globalised world, operating on the frontiers of modern science and technology and using modern science and technology as important instruments of national economic and social development. The opposite vision is of a motley crowd, opposed to us, who have come together to share the spoils of office to promote their sectional, sectarian and parochial interests. Our Left colleagues should tell us whether Shri L K Advani is acceptable to them as a Prime Ministerial candidate. Shri L K Advani should enlighten us if he will step aside as Prime Ministerial candidate of the opposition in favour of the choice of UNPA. They should take the country into confidence on this important issue.
I have already stated in my opening remarks that the House has been dragged into this debate unnecessarily.
I wish our attention had not been diverted from some priority areas of national concern. These priorities are:
(i) Tackling the imported inflation caused by a steep increase in oil prices. Our effort is to control inflation without hurting the rate of growth and employment.
(ii) To revitalise agriculture. We have decisively reversed the declining trend of investment and resource flow in agriculture. The finance minister has dealt with the measures we have taken in this regard. We have achieved a record foodgrain production of 231 million tonnes. But we need to redouble our efforts to improve agricultural productivity.
(iii) To improve the effectiveness of our flagship pro-poor programmes such as National Rural Employment Programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the nation-wide mid day meal programme, Bharat Nirman to improve the quality of rural infrastructure, roads, electricity, safe drinking water, sanitation, irrigation, National Rural Health Mission and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. These programmes are yielding solid results. But more needs to be done to improve the quality of implementation.
(iv) We have initiated a major thrust in expanding higher education. The objective is to expand the gross enrolment ratio in higher education from 11.6 per cent to 15 per cent by the end of the 11th Plan and to 21 per cent by the end of the 12th Plan. To meet these goals, we have an ambitious program, which seeks to create 30 new universities, of which 14 will be world class, 8 new IITs, 7 new IIMs, 20 new IIITs, 5 new IISERs, 2 Schools of planning and Architecture, 10 NITs, 373 new degree colleges and 1,000 new polytechnics. And these are not just plans. Three new IISERs are already operational and the remaining two will become operational from the 2008-09 academic session. Two SPAs will be starting this year. Six of the new IITs start their classes this year.
(Exceprts from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech in reply to the confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, 22 July 2008)
