HYDERABAD: Stating that former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had saved the country from bankruptcy by introducing the FRBM Act and the Contributory Pension Scheme, Foundation for Democratic Reforms founder N Jayaprakash Narayan on Sunday said that it was a worrying trend that some States are planning to return to the old pension scheme.
Predicting that these States will go bankrupt by 2034, Narayan said that this would ultimately affect the overall economy of the country. Delivering his address at the “Summit on Good Governance” held at a hotel at Abids to mark the birth anniversary of Vajpayee, he said that there was a need to protect the foundations laid by Vajpayee during his tenure as the prime minister.
Narayan felt that decentralisation of powers by giving more power to local governments (three-tier panchayat raj system), maintaining a balance between the country’s development versus temporary welfare initiatives, implementing law-abiding governance and bringing electoral reforms where note doesn’t influence the vote would be real tributes to Vajpayee.
“The greatest moment in our democracy, which is the golden chapter in our country’s history, took place in 1999 when the Vajpayee government lost the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha by one vote. This one vote was cast by the then chief minister of Odisha who was the MP. Vajpayee could have asked the Speaker to raise an objection to his vote, but he didn’t do it. He didn’t buy a single vote and didn’t pressurise any MP to support the NDA. There is no need for a better example of good governance than that,” Narayan said.
Recalling the Panchayat Sammelans held by the Vajpayee government, he said that AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi was also invited to those conferences, and remembered how Vajpayee had praised the efforts of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, giving him the credit for establishing local governments.
“Such was Vajpayee’s magnanimity. There were literally no proper national highways in those times. He showed how basic facilities could be provided to the people. There was a time when it used to take two years to get a telephone connection. It was because of Vajpayee that today we have the lowest phone tariff in the world,” Narayan added.
Former Union home secretary K Padmanabhaiah reminded that during the 13-day government led by Vajpayee, there was a situation where the elections for J&K were being held. Before he came to power, the first phase of the election was held in Jammu, where BJP was a clear winner. To conduct the elections in the next two phases when BJP was weak (in Kashmir), Padmanabhaiah said that he had to seek permission from Vajpayee.
“Despite knowing very well that BJP would not win in those segments, Vajpayee said that there was no question of postponement of elections there. He knew very well that it took eight years for us to conduct elections in the terror-torn State,” Padmanabhaiah said.
Among the five prime ministers he has worked with, Padmanabhaiah said that Vajpayee was the best.
Mala Vajpayee Tiwari, niece of Vajpayee and president of Atal Foundation, BJP MP K Laxman, LV Gangadhara Sastry, president of Bhagavad Gita Foundation, Prachi Shukla of the Atal foundation, and others were present.