Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in an interview to this newspaper said the new chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi, was trying his best to build a
consensus. “What can he do if the others do not cooperate? If everybody cooperates, we can have it. I have full faith and confidence in him,” said Mr Mukherjee.
In the context of the recent campaign by civil society, Mr Pranab Mukherjee said institutions should not be dismantled, they should instead be strengthened. “You can’t create anarchy by destroying systems and institutions,” he said.
On the letter written by top bankers, corporate leaders and eminent citizens calling for good governance, the finance minister noted that in any vibrant democratic system there should be a constant dialogue between the people and the policymakers. “Definitely we can assure them that there will be no deficiency in efforts by the government to tackle the problem. But we shall have to keep in mind that difficult and complex problems require time, and the solution is not always simplistic,” Mr Mukherjee said. The law was taking its own course, he said, pointing out that investigations into the 2G spectrum scam and the Commonwealth Games had started long before the Anna Hazare campaign.
On the crisis in the Eurozone, the minister said it was decided at the G-20 finance ministers’ meeting in Paris to recommend to European countries to first have a credible assessment of solvency issues, and thereafter “we will try to find out the supplementary financing arrangement”. He felt while there could be some slowdown, there will be no global collapse as had happened in the 1930s. He said the excessive liquidity being released by some countries in the markets was now being converted into commodities like oil, which had resulted in high crude oil prices.
“That means financialisation of commodities is taking place with the excess money injected into the system. Therefore the central banks of such countries which are releasing the money should pause and think about the impact,” added Mr Mukherjee.