After that period, the process of falling prices continued further and the proof of it can be found in the Finance Minister’s Budget speech of Mr. C. Subramaniam in 1975. Some people try to take credit of it for the Emergency. I would like to tell them that the emergency may have its advantages and disadvantages in other ways. I may like it or may not like it; I may have other criticism to offer, but the price fall has nothing to do with the emergency. It started with a package of a very difficult, very unpopular decisions in September 1974. Those decisions we took and a matter of fact, then the fall started; it continued in 1975; it also continued in 1976; it also continued in 1977. Janata Party inherited that fall and you maintained it, for some time.
I would like to say that was done by taking certain unpopular measures. Somebody has made an observation about the economic situation. I agree with it that the economic situation cannot be solved by political manoeuvres. The economic solution can be found out for solving the economic situation and, therefore, it is necessary to go to the heart of the problem.
If you do not mind, if you want criticism of a friend, see a sort of a sense of complacency, a sort of lack of direction, as far as the economic matters are concerned. There is refusal to use the talent in their own party. We do not offer it from our side. I do not want to mention names. There is unnecessary concentration of power somewhere; there is unwillingness to take decision. There is unwillingness to act independently and there is unwillingness to differ, where to differ is so very essential. That makes the working of the government and the working of the economy very difficult. What I do not like is the lack of direction, the sense of complacency that everything is all right. Of course I must admit that the Prime Minister in her interview had agreed that prices had risen. She has very wisely not promised a price fall; she very carefully said : we will try to make an effort and see how we can go about it. That is all right. But it is not enough. You will have to go forward and do something concrete. The basic area is the public sector functioning. How do you improve the working of the public sector?
The hon. Finance Minister while presenting his budget made a statement on tackling the question of inflation. There are two ways. He said then that either you expand the supply or control the demand. He has taken to expanding the supply; that is what I understood him; if I am wrong he can correct me. At the present moment I have found that neither the supply has expanded nor is the demand controlled. What Mr. Kamal Nath was saying was right; I agree with him. In a developing country one cannot say that the country can go without any inflation at all. But how much? Even developed countries cannot bear an inflation rate of more than 4 per cent. The utmost that a developing country can have is about 4 to 5 per cent; that is one per cent more. One can understand it. How much deficit financing you could have ? Mr. Dandavate made a prophecy that the Finance Minister will come up with a deficit financing of Rs. 3,000 crores; I saw the Finance Minister moving his head horizontally and saying ‘no’.
Prof. Madhu Dandavate : He meant to say it was more than that.
