New Delhi:
As the government tries to fight allegations of policy paralysis, senior minister Praful Patel has acknowledged that both politicians and bureaucrats are worried about taking any decisions, because they are worried that their actions will later be misinterpreted and used against them. Mr Patel is Heavy Industries Minister and his party, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is a member of the ruling coalition at the centre.
Addressing a conference of businessmen in Pune, Mr Patel said, "We are coming to a situation where everybody is scared to take even a decision. You take a decision means you had to have a malafide, you had to have some kind of personal motive attached to it. This is the way if everybody starts doubting the credentials of the other, if every politician of the country is considered to be corrupt or considered to be having a personal agenda, where's this country going to end up with?"
The government, that Mr Patel's party belongs to, has been fighting the perception that it has allowed endemic corruption to infiltrate key departments like telecom and coal. The CBI is investigating different aspects of these swindles, including one that saw politicians and bureaucrats helping themselves to apartments in a Mumbai high-rise meant for war widows and veterans. The main opposition party, the BJP, has been demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister since last month when the national auditor said that a weak coal policy allowed private players to gain up to 1.86 lakh crore at the expense of the government.