I think, this is a record deficit that any Finance Minister has shown so far, and we have been told that this is going to be reduced by selling the Government gold holding at the international price. The deficit is of Rs. 1,000 crores and the Reserve Bank Governor tells us today that the entire gold holdings of Government are worth Rs. 500 crores only. What about the remaining Rs. 500 crores? Where are they going to come from? Is it going to be left to the Government to look after as a deficit and ultimately the people to take the burden on them?
I would like to maintain that this is not the right way? This gold is also a Government asset. You are wasting it. That gold is not something which you have earned. This accummulation of gold is of years together, which has to be used in the days of emergency. Apart from the RBI gold, Government holds gold which is to be used for emergency. It includes gold which was collected for use at the time of war etc. Perhaps this was collected at the time of the Pakistan war or the Chinese war. This is what you are using for meeting the deficit in the budget. Is this the way of running the economic administration of this country? And we are told they everything is all right and you are trying to do far better. I would like to say that nothing is better...
...The last few paragraphs in the President’s Address deal with the External Affairs and I am very glad that the Minister for External affairs is present here when I am talking about this matter. I am only making a reference to those portions which I have seen in the President’s Address. I am not talking on the External Affairs as a whole. I would certainly like to participate in the External Affairs debate and offer my comments later. What is said here certainly shows and rather gives some sort of a glimps of what is working in their minds. It is said in the Address :
“The Government has based its relations with the Great Powers on the firm belief in a commitment to genuine non-alignment....”
They are more worried about the relations with the great powers. They have also said about mutual relations with the neighbouring countries. In fact this is also one of the very important forums, but this is not something special, which you have done. This is something which every country has to do and this has been a very important feature of our foreign policy all along and for the last 30 years - even before Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee started visiting the neighbouring countries. We have also followed the same policy because ultimately the neighbourhood in which we live and the relations with them are very important for us. Therefore, one cannot say that this something very special for which one need to be complimented. But this is the only thing you thought of worth saying - relations with great powers and the genuine non-alignment. I am afraid, and this is my fear that I am expressing. So far they have kept non-alignment and kept the old foreign policy by and large in a straight line as far as possible, but there are some of the indications which are disturbing. This use of the words, ‘genuine non-alignment’ - here I am afraid a new type of alignment is concelaed behind this ‘genuine non-alignment’ This my fear. Sometime, something will come out of it.
