Asserting that the Manmohan Singh government will last its full five-year term, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has promised to carry out economic reforms, including divestment, as laid out in the common minimum programme.
"We will deliver all the reforms that we have promised in the common minimum programme. Manmohan Singh will lead this government for five years. Please be assured this government is stable. This government will last its full term," Chidambaram told BBC in its hard talk programme.
He did not subscribe to the Left parties view that the UPA government was delivering "jobless" growth and noted that 6 to 7 per cent growth results in creation of additional 6 to 7 million jobs. However, sustaining 7-8 per cent growth would require increased investment and moderate inflation.
It is the people of this country, who will decide which party will rule after the end of five years, Chidambaram said adding that if the Congress was re-elected, it would elect its leader. "People thought we would not be able to elect the leader in 2004, but we did," he said.
He said the UPA government at the centre did not continue with the previous NDA Government's decision to privatise 13 PSUs as per the National Common Minimum Programme, which says that profit making public sector enterprises will not be privatised.
However, that does not mean that small portion of equity in these enterprises could not be divested, the Finance Minister said. He said there is a vast difference between outright sale, which would lead to privatisation and divestment.
His remarks assume significance in the face of the government's recent decision to put off divestment of BHEL, one of the Navratna companies, after which the Left parties ended their boycott of the Coordination Committee meetings with UPA.
Referring to over 8 per cent GDP growth in the first quarter of the current fiscal, Chidambaram said, "That's only the first quarter...We expect to grow between 7 and 8 per cent...But I think more is to be done."
To a statement by CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat that he is delivering a jobless growth, the finance minister said, "Well, I don't agree with that view. We are delivering growth and this growth is creating jobs in different sectors, this growth is creating jobs in rural sector also."
On Left trade unions' strike against economic reforms last month, Chidambaram said trade unions do not subscribe to NCMP but the political parties do.
"As long as we adhere to the NCMP, nobody will complain. The trade unions differ from the NCMP. Therefore they have a right to protest," he said.
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