Plan panel member Arun Maira in his book has written that Sonia Gandhi anointed Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, while she called the shots on all important appointments and policies.
NEW DELHI – Planning Commission member Arun Maira has said Congress president Sonia Gandhi has called the shots on all important appointments and policies and her son, Rahul, was now being called upon to do his dynastic duty and lead the party.
The latest comment comes in Maira’s book “Redesigning the aeroplane while flying: Reforming Institutions,” which was released on Tuesday. This comes close on the heels of the book by Sanjay Baru, former media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which had dealt extensively on the dual power centres of Singh and Sonia Gandhi and how it impacted governance.
“Sonia Gandhi chose not to become Prime Minister when she led the party to a stunning victory in the national elections in 2004. Instead, she anointed a loyal technocrat, Dr Manmohan Singh, as Prime Minister, while she called the shots on all important appointments and policies,” Maira says in the book.
He has strongly backed the need for institutional reform saying, Indian citizens are becoming disillusioned with political parties and government institutions and even with big business that they see as crony capitalists.
“Therefore, to make the Indian system to move, to get to faster growth which must be more equitable and sustainable too, it is no longer enough for the government to announce big ticket economic reforms,” says the former Boston Consulting Group India chief.
“Indeed some say institutional reforms must now precede economic reforms so that the capacity of institutions can catch up with the demands that economic reforms are imposing on them,” he says.
He says India must become an inclusive economy. “Genuine inclusion is not achieved by handouts and by redistribution. Infact, handing out and charity reinforce the idea of exclusion,” Maira says in his books just days before the term of the UPA coalition comes to an end.
He also recalls his meeting with Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal in 2006 and their discussion on how movements for changing institutions could be scaled up or rather ” spread around as suggested by Kejriwal.
“I met Arvin again recently after he was suddenly made the Chie minister of Delhi. He admitted that the structures for managing movements, political parties and governments are inherently different. The questions were how does one build them and how does one change them,” Maira said in his book.
