Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seems to have woken up from a slumber
after much flak from the Indian and international Press. Working with
new-found resolve to catapult the sagging economy back to its formerly
high-growth trajectory, Mr Singh announced a slew of tough measures last
week.
In the wake of diesel price hike and FDI in multi-brand retail, the PM announced another tranche of reforms yesterday. To everyone’s surprise, these new reform measures had nothing to do with India. For instance, one of the announcements was about allowing 49 per cent FDI in the insurance sector in China. Another was regarding allowing FDI in the aviation sector in Pakistan. Another was about doing away with some investor-unfriendly tax laws in Russia. This latest development has baffled Indians.
Understandably, these measures have evoked sharp reactions from the nations concerned. The Chinese foreign minister expressed shock. The Prime Minister of Pakistan strongly condemned the latest move and termed it an “outrageous overstepping of jurisdiction”. A spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry preferred irony: “The announcement is funny. The Indian Prime Minister has a good sense of humour. Russia doesn’t take this statement seriously. People in his own country do not take him seriously. Why should we?” The officials in the foreign ministries of some other countries such as Uruguay and Paraguay dismissed the statement as not worth reacting to.
Jest Kidding has learnt that this faux pas is the handiwork of a fun-loving bureaucrat in the Prime Minister’s Office who is quite notorious for his pranks. Judging the mood of the Prime Minister who is too ready to say yes to anything that rhymes with ‘reform’, the mischievous official had included these proposals with other documents and letters that required the assent of the PM. The same person had earlier leaked former Army chief General VK Singh’s letter to the Prime Minister about the poor defence preparedness of the Indian armed forces.
“The Prime Minister took a cursory glance at the proposals and chancing upon words such as FDI and
foreign investors, he signed the documents with gusto,” said an official in the PMO who did not wish to be identified.
The prankster bureaucrat had also prepared a speech to be delivered by Mr Manmohan Singh addressing the people of China trying to drive home the importance of permitting FDI in the insurance sector in China. Some alert officials in the PMO prevented the Prime Minister from reading out the speech barely a few seconds before the recording was set to begin. The minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr V Narayanasamy, however sought to downplay the episode. “Our external affairs minister had read the speech of Portuguese minister at United Nations Security Council meeting last year. This is nothing in comparison to that. Do not blow things out of proportion,” said the visibly-upset minister.
Link: http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=424532&catid=39
In the wake of diesel price hike and FDI in multi-brand retail, the PM announced another tranche of reforms yesterday. To everyone’s surprise, these new reform measures had nothing to do with India. For instance, one of the announcements was about allowing 49 per cent FDI in the insurance sector in China. Another was regarding allowing FDI in the aviation sector in Pakistan. Another was about doing away with some investor-unfriendly tax laws in Russia. This latest development has baffled Indians.
Understandably, these measures have evoked sharp reactions from the nations concerned. The Chinese foreign minister expressed shock. The Prime Minister of Pakistan strongly condemned the latest move and termed it an “outrageous overstepping of jurisdiction”. A spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry preferred irony: “The announcement is funny. The Indian Prime Minister has a good sense of humour. Russia doesn’t take this statement seriously. People in his own country do not take him seriously. Why should we?” The officials in the foreign ministries of some other countries such as Uruguay and Paraguay dismissed the statement as not worth reacting to.
Jest Kidding has learnt that this faux pas is the handiwork of a fun-loving bureaucrat in the Prime Minister’s Office who is quite notorious for his pranks. Judging the mood of the Prime Minister who is too ready to say yes to anything that rhymes with ‘reform’, the mischievous official had included these proposals with other documents and letters that required the assent of the PM. The same person had earlier leaked former Army chief General VK Singh’s letter to the Prime Minister about the poor defence preparedness of the Indian armed forces.
“The Prime Minister took a cursory glance at the proposals and chancing upon words such as FDI and
foreign investors, he signed the documents with gusto,” said an official in the PMO who did not wish to be identified.
The prankster bureaucrat had also prepared a speech to be delivered by Mr Manmohan Singh addressing the people of China trying to drive home the importance of permitting FDI in the insurance sector in China. Some alert officials in the PMO prevented the Prime Minister from reading out the speech barely a few seconds before the recording was set to begin. The minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr V Narayanasamy, however sought to downplay the episode. “Our external affairs minister had read the speech of Portuguese minister at United Nations Security Council meeting last year. This is nothing in comparison to that. Do not blow things out of proportion,” said the visibly-upset minister.
Link: http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=424532&catid=39
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