'With liberalisation we will be enriching
foreign countries at our expense'

What do you think of the economic process in the country? What flaws do you find in these reforms?

I have not done an in-depth study of economics. But as a person interested in the real development of the country I would say we have to march with the time and cannot lead an isolated life.

Gandhiji said you have to encourage village industry. Yes you cannot make any village self sufficient and have to depend on others. But there should be a controlled policy. MNCs should come only in areas where we do not have the required expertise or to set up industries and giving technical training to others engaged in other industries. As far as consumer goods are concerned we must not allow them. For instance, take potato wafers, our grannies and mothers can make better and much cheaper wafers!

So in these cases foreign companies should not come and tinker with our economy, then take our environment. Industrialisation should not be at the cost of the local population, by harming the trees and destroying the forests. The natural sources of energy should be channelised properly. What we want is not merely development but sustainable development.

I wonder if our economic sovereignty will remain intact.

Gandhiji had encouraged small scale industries so that the poorest of the poor could augment his income by plying a charkha or doing some basic craft. Today we just had a meeting of all khadi workers. They say old women that were earning Rs 15 or Rs 20 or even Rs 30 or Rs 40 are all starving and so many khadi institutions have not even received their dues for the last three or four years.

In the economic field we haven't made much progress. I wouldn't say we have not done anything. Our industrial base may have strengthened. There is nothing from a pin to an aeroplane that we cannot make ourselves. But I am afraid with liberalisation and globalisation we will be enriching foreign countries at the expense of our country. This should not happen. I can see the East India company more or less returning.

How do you see the political fabric of the country?

In politics, everything has turned upside down. Gandhiji, even Gokhaleji wanted a close connection between morals and politics. Today not only has politics been criminalised but criminals themselves rule over us. It has reached the extent that our own home minister says that this nexus cannot be broken.

As far as communal harmony is concerned, we felt with partition most of our troubles will be solved. But today instead of being solved they have grown.

Only in the field of our foreign policy we have by and large stuck to the promise of world peace.

Can this degeneration of India be stopped?

We will not be able to make-up completely, but we can stop the rot and prevent further deterioration in social and economic activity.

This has been an experiment, we are trying. But all said and done it is an experiment worth trying.

We must give a prominent place to the teaching of moral values. Perhaps then we have some hope.

Secondly, many NGOs have volunteered to help. In the country there a thousand or so Gandhian organisations, plus there are women's organisations that are more aware and therefore we can stop violation of rights. If we cannot stop the rot we can atleast sound a warning.

Thirdly, Gandhiji and other leaders emphasised that decentralisation could play in the whole process of economic development.

There is not much wrong with the policies we have taken, but they should be implemented properly.

I am in favour of socialism. There is nothing wrong with socialist ideology. It was the way we tried to implement that it has become a failure. We shouldn't do anything at the cost of our own country. It doesn't matter if the country gets industrialised a little later but no one should be deprived of the employment he already has.