New Delhi: Former President Pranab Mukherjee Monday said economy is the last priority for politicians.
Recalling how former finance minister Yashwant Sinha was kept from presenting a regular budget under late prime minister Chandra Shekhar, Mukherjee agreed with what Sinha wrote in his book Relentless. “Saving the government was more important, I was told,” Mukherjee read from Sinha’s book.“He’s absolutely correct, economy is a politician’s last priority,” he added.
Mukherjee was speaking at the launch of Sinha’s book. MP Shashi Tharoor, former BJP MP Arun Shourie, journalist Barkha Dutt and former civil servant Wajahat Habibullah also graced the event.
Recounting his first impression of Sinha, Mukherjee said: “When I first came to know him, it was with a little disapproval,” he said.
“I candidly admit my not-so-strong liking of a civil servant turned into a politician. I always think that they are perhaps a little less than what you call a trade politician,” he said.
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‘Relationship between politicians & bureaucrats is difficult’
Talking about the relationship between a bureaucrat and a politician, Sinha said despite 70 years of independence it is a very “difficult relationship” in which an equilibrium has not been established and that there are still oddities.
“I was ill-treated by people who had served under me as a deputy commissioner after I entered public life,” said Sinha. “They wouldn’t even offer me a chair to sit because I belonged to the opposition.”
Sinha said the “weakness in the bureaucracy” is that civil servants will go out of their way to please those in power and ill-treat the opposition.
The former finance minister also talked about the three types of MPs, especially in the Lok Sabha.
“The first category is that they are such great leaders of the nation that they don’t have to go to their constituency at all, but they still keep winning elections,” he said. “But, in 2019 some of their roots have been shaken,” Sinha added.
The second category, Sinha said, are the ones who have nothing to do with Delhi, and focus solely on their constituencies, while third categories are people who straddle both worlds.
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Mr L K Advani had said to Mr Swapan Dasgupta that Indian elections are not fought on the basis of economy and this was in the 90s. Socialist Congress didn’t want schools to be teaching basic economics for fear of truth being revealed that socialism is bad economics. The economically illiterate masses salivated at the bread crumbs thrown to them by socialist leaders whose main aim was to keep the people dependent on the state and control them by keeping them poor. Evil socialism is so widespread that even conservatives follow it.
After almost 4 moths theses Modi baiter are appearing in public forum….they used all type of tactical method thruugh every media but COMMON CITIZENS voters are more intelligent & shroud…
Indians voting for Pragya Thakur, Hans Raj Hans, Sunny Deol and Tejasvi Surya is a very poor reflection of Indian voters’ intelligence.. reality is Indians vote fr a party who excels in marketing themselves and hardly vote for issues that impact their lives.. very few exceptions like AAP in Delhi as they never trusted BJP & Cong had lost its credibility in 2014.. Even in 2020, AAP should win as they have done a good job in Delhi..
The story is incompatible with the headline.
The economy, unfortunately, is the average citizen’s first priority. Hence the regular interchange between the Treasury and the Opposition benches.