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August 27, 1998

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Vajpayee finally gets down to business

George Iype in New Delhi

Having declared a temporary truce with his warring coalition partners, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has embarked on a series of measure to rev up the economy and spruce up the government's image.

While official sources indicated that more significant decisions are in the offing in the coming days, the Bharatiya Janata Party's economic advisors said the move to churn up the economy is meant to dispel the impression that the Vajpayee regime is in a stupor.

The five-month-old Vajpayee government's fate has been hanging fire in the past few weeks, thanks to the persistent threats from allies like All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalitha to pull out of the coalition.

On Wednesday, the prime minister showed signs of getting down to work by setting up two advisory panels in an attempt to stamp his authority on his coalition government's economic policies.

The 10-member Economic Advisory Council consists of leading economists like former RBI governor I G Patel, Professor P N Dhar, former finance secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Planning Commission member Dr Arjun Sengupta, economists Dr Kirit Parekh, Dr Amresh Baghchi, Ashok Desai, former chief economic adviser to the government, and G V Ramakrishna, chairman of the Divestment Commission. Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra and secretary in the PMO N K Singh are also members of the council.

The 12-member Trade and Industry Council has leading businessmen like Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, R P Goenka, P K Mittal, Kumaramangalam Birla, Suresh Krishna, N R Narayana Murthy, Nusli Wadia, A C Muthaiah and Dr Parvinder Singh. Mishra and Singh are also members of this council.

In a move to boost the economy, the government also announced the clearance of a national hydel policy, a satellite telephony policy and recommended the promulgation of an ordinance to allow the petroleum ministry more flexibility in fixing oil royalties.

"These measures will surely provide a fresh impetus to the economy and boost investments in the infrastructure sector," BJP economist and national executive council member Jagdish Shettigar said.

He told Rediff On The NeT that the government's effort is to impart momentum to the economic growth process. "Because ours is a coalition government, differences between various allies have given the wrong impression that the BJP government is engaged only in political fire-fighting," Shettigar added.

Sources said Vajpayee has authorised a core team of top officials consisting of Mishra, Singh and Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar to refashion the government's interaction with economists and leaders of trade and industry. The prime minister will chair the first meeting with the economic and trade councils soon after his return from the Non-Alignment Movement summit in South Africa next week.

"Finance Minister Yaswant Sinha has promised that the economy will look up by September. These measures are meant to ensure that the economy comes out of the current recession," an official associated with the two councils said.

He said the government is also planning to come out with similar action plans on the social and education sectors.

Similarly Vajpayee's Cabinet is also clearing some of the major promises made by the BJP in the National Agenda for Governance.

They include an early promulgation of the Prasar Bharti ordinance which will result in the automatic removal of the present chief executive S S Gill and the notification to set up a commission for reviewing the Constitution of India.

The government has already constituted a multi-member autonomous Central Vigilance Commission indicating that it will take a firm stand on corruption. The apex Central Bureau of Investigation will now function under the CVC, an independent body answerable only to Parliament.

With a fixed tenure for the chief vigilance commissioner and three assisting commissioners, the government hopes the CVC will perform a greater role in tackling corruption in various departments across the country.

Former home secretary K Padmanabhaiah and former Cabinet secretary T S R Subramaniam are said to the frontrunners for the CVC post.

The Cabinet secretariat has also submitted to the Prime Minister's Office a long list of vacancies in the bureaucracy, diplomatic corps and judiciary. Vajpayee is expected to give his approval for these appointments in the second week of September.

BJP insiders said the prime minister's effort is to spruce up the image of the coalition government before the assembly election in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan scheduled in November.

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