Punjabi by nature?

Vol. 6 | issue 7 | August 2012

Bric-a-brac

 

Punjabi by nature?

manmohan’s clever moves

IF you think that Manmohan Singh stands isolated in the Congress Party and in the Cabinet, then you should think again. Through his recent actions, the Prime Minister has proven himself to be an excellent politician, creating his own club of supporters and admirers not only in India but in the world, outsmarting even the stalwarts within Congress and the Opposition. His government’s announcement allowing foreign direct investment in retail was not the bombshell that many have made it out to be. Instead, most of the Congress Party’s favoured business houses have known for over a year now that such a decision was inevitable; a key indicator here being that they had begun putting in money in the market more than a year earlier, confident that policy change would follow. But what surprised everybody was the manner in which Manmohan’s Cabinet and party colleagues – Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, Sharad Pawar, Ambika Soni, Praful Patel, Ajit Singh, Ashwani Kumar and Manish Tiwari – started to sing the pro-FDI song when he took the step forward. It was also observed that Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members from Punjab and other members of the House, all ‘Punjabi by nature’, joined in the chorus, with the Prime Minister being the conductor. Industrialists Sunil Bharti Mittal and Mukesh Ambani were reportedly active in gathering support for FDI as were certain top industrialists from Punjab. So, if one thought that the tortoise could not outrace the hare, think again!