Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's opening remarks at the meeting with Editors of Electronic Media

It is real pleasure meeting you on this auspicious occasion when we are all celebrating the birthday of Hazrat Mohammad Saheb . Today is Eid and on this occasion I would like to felicitate all our country men and women and extend my greetings. May this Eid bring, added peace and prosperity to the people of India.

During the last couple of months, the media have drawn the country's attention to some aberrations whether in the form of allocation of 2G spectrum, the Commonwealth Games and more recently some developments in the Space organization, Adarsh society affairs. I think media have played a very important role in drawing the country's attention to these issues which require corrective action. I wish to assure you and I wish to assure the country as a whole that our Government is dead serious in bringing to book all the wrong doers, regardless of the position they may occupy. However I would like to say that in projecting these events an impression has gone round that we are a scam-driven country and that nothing good is happening in our country. In the process, believingly, I think we are weakening the self-confidence of the people of India. I don't that it is in the interest of anybody in our country. We have a functioning government, and whatever some people may say that we are a lame duck government that I am a lame duck prime minister, we take our job very seriously, we are here to govern and to govern effectively, tackle the problems as they arise and get this country moving forward on a pace of development which would do justice to the demands being made on the process of governance.

I wish to tell you that our economy is in good shape. We will have a growth rate of 8.5 percent this fiscal year and that the way India has come out and tackled the aftermath of international financial crisis, I think does our country a great credit. It is certainly true that in recent months inflation and food inflation in particular has been a problem. We want to deal it in a manner that the growth rhythm is not disturbed. If we were concerned with only curbing inflation I think we could have done it by pursuing tighter monetary policies, we could have brought about a situation where price rise could be moderated. But if in the process, growth process gets hurt I think that would not do our country any good and we are trying to deal with inflation at a time when we don't have all instruments at our command in the sense that we do not have control over international events. We are now increasingly an open economy and the oil prices are rising, the food prices are rising, commodity prices are rising, we have to deal with inflation despite an adverse international environment and you have my assurance that we will succeed. And at the end of the fiscal year, the inflation rate should come down to no more than 7 percent.

Also I would like to mention that internal security of the country has been a great concern. I wouldn't like to say that we are not worried about terrorist acts. We are better prepared to deal with acts of terror and prevent many potential terrorist acts and I think the Government deserves some credit. In the North East, things are getting normalized. Talks are going to begin with ULFA and the ULFA leadership having decided to give up the path up violence is a welcome development which will have far reaching consequences for the growth process in our North Eastern States.

In same way, in J&K, after some turbulence there are I think signs we are getting the situation under control and that the people of J&K can look forward to orderly development of development processes. A number of committees are working to chart out that path and Dr. Rangarajan is preparing a report on the employment aspects, and if that report is implemented, it would bring a fresh ray of hope to young people in J&K who are eagerly searching for productive employment opportunities.

As far as the external situation is concerned, I think this fiscal year, all the top leaders of the five permanent members of Security Council have visited our country. This has never happened before and the world today appreciates that India is a democracy, a functioning democracy, committed to the rule of law, committed to respect of fundamental human rights, is trying to seek its economic and social salvation in the framework of democracy and rapidly expanding the economy too. Wherever I go, people marvel that there is a country like India, a country of a billion people, a functioning democracy, committed to the rule of law, committed to respect for all fundamental human freedoms and yet managing to grow at the rate of 8-9% per annum. People marvel that this can be done and whatever our own domestic weaknesses I think, we should not create an atmosphere whereby the nation loses its sense of self confidence.

The media has an obligation, the Government has an obligation, the Opposition has an obligation that we work together in a spirit that India as a whole has to march forward. Parliament has not been allowed to function for reasons which I am not able to understand. But we are making an honest effort to ensure that the next session of parliament will be an orderly session. We have important legislations apart from the budget to put before parliament and talks are going on with the opposition parties to ensure that whatever our differences, parliament should be allowed to function normally.

So I would wish to mention to you that in reporting the affairs of our nation, we mustn't focus excessively on the negative features important though it is that the government should deal with them, to take effective action and you have my assurance that wherever such corrective action is required, our government will take that action and will bring the wrong doers to book. With these words, I once again welcome you to this session of interaction. The Media has, as I said, a very important role to play in a functioning democracy that India is and let us work together to revitalize the spirit of rejuvenation, spirit of self confidence that we have problems, but we also have credible mechanisms to overcome them. We shall overcome, we shall prevail. We will provide our country a functioning effective government and that's what I wanted to say in the very beginning now the floor is entirely yours.