Leadership deficit in India aggravating economic crisis: Ratan Tata

Mangalore Today/CNN-IBN

New Delhi, Aug 28: Former chairman of Tata Group Ratan Tata on Tuesday said that the leadership deficit in India is aggravating our economic crisis. Tata broke his silence in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN on the leadership deficit and economic crisis in the country.

Ratan Tata said that the country needed leaders who lead from the front and the Prime Minister’s team and the political class needed to pull in one direction, and not pursue individual agendas above national interests.

 

"There are leaders whom I’ve respected all through my life for their public life. But something has happened that has diffused this leadership. We don’t have leadership that we have been talking about, that is leading from the front," Tata said.

Meanwhile, he said that his respect for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continues to be very high.

"My aspirations what he is able to do is very high. Perhaps the team is not leading in one direction, it was pulling in different direction. States are pulling in one direction, allies are pulling in different direction and many heads of the portfolios in the government are pulling in different directions," he said.

"We are not consolidating ourselves in the government. We are not any longer looking ourselves as one India. In a way we are Punjabis, Bengalis, Tamils first and Indians second. It’s not the way we should be looking at our country," he added.

He said that the vested interests in the governments’s policy have either delayed or manipulated that policy often in private sector.

"So for one reason or the other the government has swayed with those forces. If the policies implemented as those are written, would be good for the country, he told to CNN-IBN.

Meanwhile, he said that Manmohan Singh has held country’s esteem high but at recent times we have lost that esteem. "We have lost the confidence of the world. We have been slow to recognize that in the government," he added.

However, Ratan Tata praised Narendra Modi’s leadership in Gujarat but refrained from commenting on his bigger role in the national politics.

"I think in Gujarat he has proven his leadership and he has moved Gujarat into a position of prominence. I’m not in a position to gaze what he would do in a country," he said.