The Hindu : National : Government's hands are tied: Rahul Bajaj

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 18, 2006

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National

Government's hands are tied: Rahul Bajaj

New Delhi: Industrialist and newly elected Rajya Sabha member Rahul Bajaj has blamed the political configuration for the slow pace of economic reforms and accused the Government of bowing to pressure a bit too much.

"The kind of reformers this Government has, whether it is Manmohan Singh or Chidambaram, Montek Singh Ahluwalia or Kamal Nath ..., but the political configurations mean that their hands are tied. They won't say it publicly but they have to decide how long this will go on," Mr. Bajaj, whose candidature had created a rift between the Congress and the NCP, told NDTV in an interview. He said the Government was constricted by the number of seats it had in the Lok Sabha.

"They don't even have 270 seats, only have something like 220. Even that is shared between 20-22 parties. The other 50 seats are with our friends in the Left," said Mr. Bajaj, who won the Rajya Sabha elections as an independent candidate supported by the NCP, the BJP and the Shiv Sena. "If I were the Prime Minister or the Congress president, I would be constantly wondering when to hold the Parliamentary elections. If I don't do so, then I am not doing my job right," he added.

UNI

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