Hello Friends,
This is an excerpt from Arvind's Wharton address. It covers the economic policies of Aam Aadmi Party.
Now, let me turn to our economic policies. Till 1991, everything was being run by the government. We saw how the government was inefficient and corrupt. In 1991, this argument was used to privatise everything. Since government is corrupt, privatise everything – that was the argument used. In the name of privatization, practically everything was handed over to a few corporates, who are believed to be close to all political parties.
I do not wish to underestimate the achievements made in the last twenty years. But can we overlook the involvement of some of the biggest business houses in most of the recent scams? And in most of these scams, we found that the top political leadership was either directly responsible for a scam or it was in collusion. When the scams surfaced, the government did everything to cover it up.
The example of Delhi Metro shows how efficiently a government agency can handle a project. The mess created by the private water and power distribution companies in Delhi and the innumerable scams unearthed in recent times show how inefficient and corrupt the private sector can be. The reverse is also true. The argument that since the government is corrupt, so lets privatise everything, this argument hasn’t worked. We can no longer side step the issue of governance. If you have good governance, you would get good services, whether they are in private sector or government sector. And if you have a corrupt government, you would get bad services whether it is in government or private sector. We need to create an honest environment for people to do business. Honest business should flourish. And there should be swift, certain and exemplary punishment for those who are corrupt.
The second lesson is equally important. All the policies in the last twenty years were meant to favor big business. Inmost cases, the policies were directed towards killing small business to favor certain big business houses. India is a country of entrepreneurs. Indians are born entrepreneurs. Every farmer is an entrepreneur, a rickshaw puller is an entrepreneur, a hawker, a trader is an entrepreneur. Every woman and a child in a poor family is an entrepreneur. Rather than encourage their spirit of entrepreneurship, rather than increase their incomes through appropriate policies, the governments have sought to snatch away whatever little they had.
I very strongly feel that Government has no business to be in business. I am strongly against government running businesses. Business should be left to the people of India. But government should not be biased in favor of a few big business houses. Every citizen has a right to do business.
This is an excerpt from Arvind's Wharton address. It covers the economic policies of Aam Aadmi Party.
Now, let me turn to our economic policies. Till 1991, everything was being run by the government. We saw how the government was inefficient and corrupt. In 1991, this argument was used to privatise everything. Since government is corrupt, privatise everything – that was the argument used. In the name of privatization, practically everything was handed over to a few corporates, who are believed to be close to all political parties.
I do not wish to underestimate the achievements made in the last twenty years. But can we overlook the involvement of some of the biggest business houses in most of the recent scams? And in most of these scams, we found that the top political leadership was either directly responsible for a scam or it was in collusion. When the scams surfaced, the government did everything to cover it up.
The example of Delhi Metro shows how efficiently a government agency can handle a project. The mess created by the private water and power distribution companies in Delhi and the innumerable scams unearthed in recent times show how inefficient and corrupt the private sector can be. The reverse is also true. The argument that since the government is corrupt, so lets privatise everything, this argument hasn’t worked. We can no longer side step the issue of governance. If you have good governance, you would get good services, whether they are in private sector or government sector. And if you have a corrupt government, you would get bad services whether it is in government or private sector. We need to create an honest environment for people to do business. Honest business should flourish. And there should be swift, certain and exemplary punishment for those who are corrupt.
The second lesson is equally important. All the policies in the last twenty years were meant to favor big business. Inmost cases, the policies were directed towards killing small business to favor certain big business houses. India is a country of entrepreneurs. Indians are born entrepreneurs. Every farmer is an entrepreneur, a rickshaw puller is an entrepreneur, a hawker, a trader is an entrepreneur. Every woman and a child in a poor family is an entrepreneur. Rather than encourage their spirit of entrepreneurship, rather than increase their incomes through appropriate policies, the governments have sought to snatch away whatever little they had.
I very strongly feel that Government has no business to be in business. I am strongly against government running businesses. Business should be left to the people of India. But government should not be biased in favor of a few big business houses. Every citizen has a right to do business.
