New Delhi, Jan 8: Financial services major HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh suggests that the government's authority and credibility has been damaged by coalition politics and feels it is a case of the “tail wagging the dog.”
Terming 2011 as a bad year to forget about, the eminent banker said the government's image has been tarnished due to the fiasco over retail FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and hoped the government would push again for this decision by June, as well as fast-track other reforms soon.
“It (the government's authority and credibility) has been damaged, but first of all, there is a coalition government and partners with minor seats and less number of seats dictate policies, rather than the party with largest number of seats.
“It is the tail wagging the dog,” Parekh, who heads the country's leading financial services conglomerate HDFC Group, said in an interview to Karan Thapar on the ‘Devil's Advocate' programme on CNN-IBN news channel.
Parekh is a member of the Prime Minister's Council of Trade and Industry and was part of a group of industrialists and eminent citizens that had written two open letters about the current state of affairs in the economy and the need to tackle a prevailing notion of a policy paralysis.
He said he was disappointed with the Prime Minister and said the PM needs to take a broader and quicker decisions and has to push reforms.
At the same time, Parekh called Manmohan Singh the best and cleanest Prime Minister and said he was convinced that he would deliver on his promises.
Asked about his views on Rahul Gandhi, Parekh said: “He is hardworking, he is sincere. He is trying his very best. He is young. He has the right family name, and who knows he may be our future PM, some day (at) some stage,” he said.
