The Congress party has come down hard on the rating agency Standard and Poor for its unprecedented comment that the division of operational roles between a ‘powerful and political’ Congress president and an ‘appointed’ prime minister Manmohan Singh had ‘weakened the policy framework’.
“These comments reflect a poor understanding of the Indian democratic process. The same arrangement was there when India was growing at 9%, and no one then referred to any divide. People have the habit of creating ghosts and then slaying them,” said party spokesperson Manish Tewari.
He said Congress has always been supportive of the reform process, and the latest example was its backing for opening of the FDI in retail.
“The decision was backed by the Congress, and it is quite a different matter that it got stalled due to the role of the opposition parties. By no stretch of imagination can anyone argue that there is a disconnect between the Congress president and the PM on policy issues,” said Tewari.
“No one can cite a single instance where the Congress president has obstructed any reformist move or gone against the government’s position. We do realise that some policy initiatives have been delayed, but then this happened not due to want of any effort from the Congress or the government side. These situations are a result of the nature of the electoral verdicts that have been delivered for the past 22 years,” said Tewari.
