80th Annual General Meeting
February 15-16, 2008

Shri Habil Khorakiwala, President of FICCI, Shri Rajeev Chandrashekhar, President-Elect, Captains of Indian business and industry, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to be once again at an annual general meeting of FICCI.

I have spoken from FICCI's platform on several occasions in the past. My colleagues from the BJP too have been interacting with you for many years. Naturally, you have also had interactions with leaders from other political parties. It is for you to judge how the BJP's thinking and practice fares vis-a-vis others'.

I can, in all humility, claim that ours is one party that has consistently followed a policy of supporting private enterprise and voicing our opposition to the license-quota-control regime even in those years when there was hardly any debate on economic reforms. Indeed, the Soviet model of government control was the dominant political fashion and intellectual obsession at the time.

Which is why, we unhesitatingly backed the former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Dr. Manmohan Singh when they showed the courage to reverse the Congress party's own previous economic policies. And when Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister, and ran a stable and successful government for six years, we tried to accelerate and broaden the agenda of economic reforms, with results that all of you have seen.

My party's consistent pro-enterprise economic philosophy

I am saying this because ours is a party whose political and economic philosophy is rooted not in foreign soil but in India's own genius and in her age-old traditions. We are not slave to any dogma, either of the left or the right variety. We are prepared to learn from the knowledge and experience of other societies, but will always be guided by our own national ideals and principles, and indeed by India's socio-economic realities.

Therefore, it has always been our belief that the dharma (duty) of the raja - or the democratically elected government in our times - is to govern, whereas the dharma of the community engaged in business, commerce, industry and agriculture is to create the wealth, generate gainful employment and fulfill the material needs of society. A proverb in Hindi says, 'Raja Bane Vyapari, Praja Bane Bhikari' (People become paupers when the rulers handle business.)

To be sir, the special situation after India gained independence, and the preceding centuries of de-industrialization under foreign rule, necessitated the state to establish big industries and run all the utilities. Even today, it is necessary for the state to stay engaged in select strategic industries, and ensure the provision of social and economic infrastructure.

But when we saw from the 1960s onwards is that state control became dogma, red-tapism set in, entrepreneurship was frowned upon, with this came the culture of political and bureaucratic corruption, and the Indian economy suffered badly.

Our roads remained narrow. Our ports remained small. Our airports, even in big cities, remained archaic. We did not expand or modernize our railway network adequately. We did not take steps to remove power and water scarcity to meet the needs of our growing population, as also the growing needs of our agriculture and industry. Hundreds of our irrigation projects suffered from cost and time overruns. We did not improve our colleges and universities to widen the access to quality higher education and to create opportunities for well-educated Indians within India. Our system of primary education and primary healthcare suffered badly, as a result of which India, even today, is stuck with a very unfavourable ranking in the UN Human Development Index.

The negative effect of all this was not only in the economic sphere. It was also psychological in nature. Tens of thousands of young, ambitious and talented Indians started to believe that they could realize their dreams only by going abroad. There was also a subconscious belief that anything of quality, anything state-of-the art, has to be of foreign origin. Hence the craze for imported goods and a tendency to associate inferiority with Indian goods.

• No nation can become strong with weak self-belief.
• No nation can attain greatness with small ambitions and tiny achievements.
• No nation can become rich by keeping the bulk of its human resources poor.

India on the path of high-achievement

It is heartening that much of this is now changing, thanks to economic reforms introduced in the early 1990s. However, it is undeniable that India's development was considerably thwarted because of some wasted decades.

I am especially gratified that our own government, headed by Shri Vajpayeeji, made a major contribution to India's forward march.

The highway development project, for example, not only expanded our roads. It expanded our thinking process, too. It convinced even common people that India can think big, implement projects in record time, and achieve what earlier seemed impossible.

Similarly, the nuclear tests at Pokharan in May 1998 had an effect far beyond the realm of national security. That bold step, taken in the teeth of opposition from big powers, made Indians feel proud and self-confident. And if we are opposed to the Indo-US nuclear deal, it is only because we do not want to India's achievement in 1998 neutralised. On our larger foreign policy template, I would also like to state that a future NDA government will value all o India's strategic partnerships, and not let one undermine or influence another.

Now, Indian entrepreneurs have been blazing a trail of achievements. Making use of the new policy regime within the country as also the opportunities in the global economy, they are scripting success stories that seemed unimaginable a decade ago. I heartily congratulate them for these achievements, which have changed not only the world's perception about India but also Indians' perception about themselves and their country.

And when I commend India's entrepreneurs, I commend not only the owners of our business groups that everyone hears about. No doubt, they deserve to be appreciated. But I also commend the thousands of workers, managers, engineers, designers, R&D personnel and other working in these enterprises.

• Hence, when I think of Nano, the world's cheapest car from the House of Tatas, I applaud not only Shri Ratan Tata's courage and determination, but also the entire team that took it up as a challenge and succeeded. We shall encourage many more such Indian successes in manufacturing.
• I feel deeply happy when I see the ongoing work on bigger and better airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and elsewhere. We shall ensure that every airport in the country modernized and every part of the country well-served by air connectivity.
• I feel happy that we are building a world-class metro system in Delhi. We shall empower hundreds of Sreedharans - and we do have such competent officers in our system - so that we are able to modernize our railway system in a short time, with focus on safety and comfort for ordinary passengers.
• I feel delighted when I hear that India is fast emerging as the Call Centre, Business Process Outsourcing hub of the world and Knowledge Process Outsourcing of the world. Thanks to these services made possible by the telecom and IT revolution in India, it is said 'Break a bone in New York, see the X-Ray in Chennai'. It is my personal commitment to see that millions of our talented young men and women from underprivileged classes to get good education, so that they too gain entry in these exciting professions.

I have only mentioned four examples, but there are many more around, which go to prove that India is now poised for a big leap forward.

We must develop a long-range vision for India's development

Friends, viewed from a historical perspective of the wasted decades in the past, what do these recent achievements convey to us? According to me, they convey that it is the duty of India's political, economic and intellectual elite to look several decades ahead. In a world that is rapidly changing, we need to gain a good understanding of India's needs challenges and opportunities from a future, strategic perspective. The tendency, especially in the political and governing class, to only think of the near-term in office or of the next election, can do no good to India.

I urge the business community also to develop a long-term perspective for themselves and the nation.

We say that we want to make ourselves a Developed Nation by 2020. We say that we want to make the 21^st century India's century. How can we make these slogans a reality unless we have a long-range vision and a vastly stronger national will and enhanced national capability to translate that vision into reality?

Some of you may be wondering why I am talking of the future and why, being the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, I am not saying anything about the government of the day. Well, whatever I have to say about the UPA government, I shall say in Parliament, whose Budget session will open in about ten days. The way this government has been functioning, or been non-functional and internally paralysed, there is really no need to talk much about its past or present.

The people are already looking beyond the UPA government. Hence, let me assure you that we in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have been preparing for the future in right earnest.

People are hungry for change but they are not looking only for a change in government, with some new faces replacing old ones. As I have been saying lately in my political rallies, people want to see a change in the culture and efficacy of governance. They want to see a big change in the way government functions at all levels.

I am sure that, as businessmen, you too are looking for a change in the manner in which the government machinery addresses your issues and your needs. I now for a fact that small and medium entrepreneurs, and those who are smaller still - in the tiny sector and the informal sector, where millions of entrepreneurs and workers are engaged - are impatient to see a governmental environment that helps them, rather than harassing them. Sometimes, I wonder if economic reforms have changed anything at all for the Small Indian - for the small kisan, for the small artisan, for the small service provider in our cities and villages.

They constitute the bulk of India's population, and indeed our workforce.

The statistics about how India's prosperity in the post-reforms period has increased inequality in our society are truly staggering. A recent report of the National Commission for Enterprises in Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), headed by Dr. Arjun Sengupta, says that nearly 860 million Indian earn Rs 20 a day. I have also come across a statement by Shri Bimal Jalan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, that 20 richest Indians earn as much as 30 crore poorest people in our country.

How can we tolerate this reality? No, we cannot. We must not. The BJP and the NDA certainly will not. We shall take bold and innovative measures to ensure that wealth is distributed across regions and across social classes.

Indeed, I urge the business community itself - and also the media - to ponder over how we can make the current growth story more equitable and sustainable. I seek your suggestions in this regard.

While on the point of wealth creation, I must voice my concern - and in doing so, I echo the concerns of millions of countrymen - over the volatile swings on the stock market. To the extent that these are caused by the development in the global financial system, it is understandable. However, there can be no place for manipulation, malpractices and misuse of the system by any of the players in the capital market. Offenders must be strictly punished.

Redefining GDP to benefit and enthuse the common man

Therefore, when I think of the future challenges before any government in India, I am convinced that the greatest task is to make the Small Indian a beneficiary of, and an enthusiastic partner in, India's progress.

Speaking for my party and the NDA, we have identified three imperatives which will reliably address the needs of both the country and the common man, both in the near-term perspective of five years, but also in the long-term perspective of the coming decades.

These three imperatives are: Good Governance, Development and Security.

And when I mention `security', I mean not only national security in its external and internal dimensions. That, of course, is of paramount importance. Which is why, we have been campaigning against terrorism more forcefully and consistently than others in the political class.

But security, I also mean human security - economic security and livelihood security of the common people, especially kisans many of whom have been forced to commit suicide on account of debt and distress.

By security, I also mean educational security and health security of every Indian.

This kind of integral development and this kind of comprehensive security cannot be achieved by a model of economic growth that benefits a few and pauperizes many.

Which is why, abstract terms like 8% or 9% GDP growth, important though they are, do not appeal to me - and they do not appeal to millions of common Indians either.

If someone were to ask me "What kind of GDP growth do you want?", I would say that kind in which:

• `G' stands for Good Governance at all levels from national to local;
• `D' stands for Development for all regions and all Indians; and
• `P' stands for Protection for every citizen.

This approach to GDP will unleash the entrepreneurial and creative energies of crores of ordinary Indians. It will necessarily take a fairly long time to achieve it, but achieving this has to be our collective commitment.

A new direction to polity and governance

Friends, I have been voicing my commitment to these three guiding principles for over a decade. Indeed, the longest yatra that I undertook in 1997 - the two-months-long Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra to commemorate the golden jubilee of India's Independence - highlighted the theme of transforming Swaraj (self-governance) to Su-raj (good governance). We tried to promote this ideal as much as we could during the six years of the NDA rule.

I must admit that my conviction in these principles is greatly strengthened by my party's spectacular success recently in Gujarat under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi. It has conveyed a message of far-reaching importance.

All of us are proud that India has emerged as a vibrant and energetic democracy after 1947. However, as an observer of and a participant in the evolution of India's democracy over the last 60 years, I have also seen that a major shortcoming has crept in. Most political parties have come to believe that the politics of vote-banks is the surest way to winning elections and attaining power. They have also developed skepticism that good governance, democracy, security and probity in public life are not commitments that can win votes.

Against this backdrop, the most significant aspect of Shri Modi's victory in Gujarat in 2007 is that it signaled the triumph of good governance, development and security over the politics of vote-banks. This as a much belated welcome development for India.

If may party and the NDA do win the mandate of the people in the next parliamentary elections, it shall be our firm resolve to make Good Governance, Development and Security the trinity encapsulating our common minimum programme.

We have decided to organise a conference of the chief ministers of all the nine NDA-ruled states next month. This, too, is a step in the direction of evolving a common guiding philosophy for our alliance.

To summarise, we in the NDA have gained rich experience in governance both at the state and central levels. Using this experience, and using good ideas and suggestions coming from all quarters, and seeking the support of all sections of our society, we shall present an ambitious and inspiring agenda before the nation. Needless to add, I value your ideas and your support in our endeavour.

With these words, I conclude my remarks and sincerely thank FICCI for giving me this opportunity to interact with you.

Thank you.