Rahul Gandhi woos India Inc, faces tough questions

TNN | Dec 22, 2013, 01.27 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday reached out to India Inc with a comprehensive economic agenda calling for end to arbitrary clearances, corruption and batted for transparency in governance but had to face tough questions on land acquisition and green issues hurting industry. 

In his second major interaction with industrialists, a confident Rahul said there was excessive administrative and judicial discretion and called for an end to "absolute arbitrary power." The Congress scion, seen as the party's PM candidate, sought to pitch a strong message of growth and transparency 

Sporting a clean shaven look, he admitted green clearances were a problem, saying, "The real issue in environment, land acquisition is arbitrary power. So if you create a rules framework and you take away arbitrary power for a lot of these problems will be mitigated. The biggest problem in this country absolute arbitrary power and we do not provide rules and structures to manage people's expectations, to manage the environment." 

The response, however, suggested that the course correction might have come a little late. The audience politely expressed its skepticism at Rahul's remarks. He had to deal with two sharp questions over the impact of the land acquisition bill and environmental approvals delaying projects. 

Coming from an audience known for its public deference for the regime of the day, the skepticism, particularly the suggestion about there being a mismatch between what is professed and what is practiced surprised many. The delay in environmental clearances, widely identified as one of the key factors behind snagged decision making, as well as other measures such as land acquisition that are resented by industry, have been attributed to initiatives of Rahul and his mother, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi 

On Saturday, the Congress leader, however, acknowledged that the environment norms were prone to misuse. "The loopholes are so big you can drive a truck through some of them. Environmental and social damage must be avoided, but decisions must be transparent, timely and fair," he told a packed hall at the FICCI annual general meeting, asserting that slow decision-making cannot be allowed to hold back industry. 

Rahul had made a rare appearance at a meeting with industrialists in April where he unveiled his vision for India, offering a "beehive" analogy, but did not offer any concrete roadmap. 

This time, he tried to delve into specifics, even agreeing with the misgivings about the enforcement of environment norms. 

The Congress vice-president called for striking a balance between protecting the environment and development but strongly backed ending arbitrary decision-making power. 

"Rent seeking and blocking competition using the environment is absolutely wrong and one must stop it. In terms of protecting the environment one cannot allow wholesale plunder of the environment," he said in response to a question. 

Rahul said the Right to Information (RTI) Act had dramatically increased transparency and there was a need to deal with the new realities in transparency. 

"The RTI has completely changed the paradigm and we have to get used to the new paradigm. The only way to get used to the paradigm is to build structures and move away from this arbitrary idea that the chief minister can do everything he wants, the environment minister can do anything he wants," he said while fielding the question on environmental delays. 

He also made a strong argument for creating jobs, raising the share of manufacturing in the economy to 25%, creating a modern and flexible labour market, and a robust and open real estate market. Later, a senior industrialist asked Rahul how the objective of creating jobs through manufacturing could be achieved when the under the new law, land acquisition will take at least 15 months. 

He said that the UPA was considering a natural resource special purpose vehicle which would obtain all clearances before auctioning projects to private players. He identified beating high inflation was a top priority as it hurt the "our people every day" and called for a crackdown on hoarding and profiteering, and used the occasion to highlight his party's role in the passage of the Lokpal bill in Parliament and its fight against corruption. 

"Corruption is bleeding our people dry. It is an unacceptable burden on the people of our nation. We must fight corruption with all our strength and determination," the Congress leader said, and highlighted two more bills - the amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Grievances Redressal bill - as critical for the fight against graft. 

Appearing confident in his second major outing among top corporate leaders, Rahul, who has faced criticism over the party's rout in state elections acknowledged the poor performance. 

"Let me begin by acknowledging that we didn't really hit a six in the last elections. We didn't do as well as we expected. I now understand what it feels like when you go to some of your AGMs with bad news," he said. 

"The recently elections have made their point. We need to have the foresight and humility to accept the messages that is being expressed to us without resorting to the usual excuses," he added.