Everyone in a democracy has the right to express their opinions, but this right needs to be tempered sometimes. Tower of Babel (December 31) rightly points out that there are too many conflicting voices on the economy from senior government officials, and this is confusing the markets. There are various estimates of growth and the latest in this is from the Chief Economic Advisor who thinks India will move back to 9 per cent next year, and will overtake China in the next three-four years. If all of this is going to happen without India undertaking any serious reforms, why are we even worried about reforms — 9 per cent growth with a population growth of 1 per cent is more than good enough.
The larger worry here is what this portrays in terms of RBI’s autonomy. With the credit policy review at the end of the month, you’d think RBI Governor D Subbarao would be the person who has to take a call on whether monetary policy should be tightened. But with both the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman and the Chief Economic Advisor saying there is no need for this, it puts too much pressure on the Governor.
Sanjay Seth, New Delhi
