MANMOHAN SINGH’s POLITICS

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh develops an urge for politics. To show perhaps he is not apolitical. Or perhaps to illustrate he is the Prime Minister in his own right, not a nominee, filling in for Congress Party president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, who picked him in her place to the post. His own party bigwigs do not believe he is the P.M. But now he wants to show he is.

What better chance to do it than when he was asked to visit Mumbai prior to the state assembly elections in Maharashtra due October 13. He is to be out in the state campaigning for his ruling party . On October 6 he opened the front with India Inc. addressing a news conference in Mumbai. After all, who must address India Inc. but Manmohan Singh?

A Press Trust of India report quoted him saying that in face of the corporate sector’s opposition to job reservation, P.M. Manmohan Singh advised them to initiate steps in this regard voluntarily. If big business did not “volunteer” on its own, he warned it would be difficult for it to oppose a “national policy”.

“Nobody can oppose an idea, whose time has come,” he declared at the conference, saying “those opposing the move will not be able to do so once a national policy is put in place.”

Holding India Inc. down thus, he however ruled out immediate policy in this regard.

The politics speak clearly. But before Manmohan Singh takes to politics, the reformist guru may consider the following.

• Are jobs to be created? Or is it that they can be reserved?

• What about growth? Growth can create jobs. Job reservation can stifle growth itself.

• Whose idea is it of a “national policy” of job reservation?