“I urge the Prime Minister to set aside his deep-rooted suspicion of our society…” As India’s GDP growth hit a new low, Manmohan Singh spoke about the fear and distrust that’s keeping India’s animal spirits caged.
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00:00A nation's state of the economy is also a reflection of the state of its society.
00:12There is a palpable climate of fear in our society today.
00:19Many industrialists tell me they live in fear of harassment by government authorities.
00:29Investors are reluctant to make new loans for fear of retribution.
00:36Public trust in independent institutions such as the media, judiciary, regulatory authorities
00:45and investigative agencies has been severely eroded.
00:51This toxic combination of deep distressed, pervasive fear and a sense of hopelessness
01:00in our society is stifling economic activity and hence the rate of our economic growth.
01:08The root cause of all this is the government's policy doctrine that seems to suspect every
01:18industrialist, every banker, every policy maker, every regulator, every entrepreneur
01:26and every citizen.
01:29The Modi government seems to view everything and everyone through a tainted prism of suspicion
01:38and distrust through which every policy of previous governments was considered to be
01:46of bad intent, every loan sanction was undeserving, every new industrial project was crony in
01:56nature and so on.
01:59And the government has positioned itself as some saviour, resorting to foolhardy, moral
02:09policing police such as demonetisation that have proved to be disastrous.
02:18For economic growth to revive, it is very important that the government enthuses and
02:27generates trust and confidence.
02:30This is possible only if the government sheds its current doctrine and begins to trust India
02:39as farmers, India as entrepreneurs and India as citizens at large.
02:46India is now a three trillion global economy, economic powerhouse driven largely by private
02:55enterprise.
02:58It is not a tiny command and control economy that can be bullied and directed at will.
03:07Nor can it be managed through colourful headlines and noisy media commentary, shooting down
03:16messengers of bad news or shutting off economic reports and data as juvenile and does not
03:25behove a rising global economic powerhouse of the world economy.
03:32With an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha and low global oil prices, this is a once
03:42in a generation economic opportunity to catapult India to the new next phase of economic development
03:53and create new jobs for hundreds of millions of India's youth.
03:59I urge the Prime Minister to set aside his government's deep-rooted suspicion of our
04:07society and nurse us back to a harmonious, confident and mutually trustworthy society
04:16that can revive the animal spirits and help our economy soar.