I’ll Ensure Policy Continuity: Modi BJP’s PM face says protecting investor sentiment would be his top priority

I’ll Ensure Policy Continuity: Modi

BJP’s PM face says protecting investor sentiment would be his top priority

DP BHATTACHARYA & PARTHA GHOSH

GANDHINAGAR

   Narendra Modi is utterly confident about a majority for BJP-led NDA and says a Congress rout is “almost certain”. But the current fractious electoral battle won’t come in the way of postpoll BJP-Congress cooperation, Modi told ET while answering detailed questions on polls, policy and governance.

“Congress is not only staring at a certain defeat, but also going to fall to its lowest ever tally…I would not be surprised if Congress fails to attain double-digit score in any state and almost certainly it is not going to reach the triple-figure mark nationally…BJP and NDA (are) both achieving their best performances ever…it is almost certain that the pre-poll alliance of NDA will get a clear majority,” Modi said.

Modi not only held out a post-poll olive branch to Congress, saying “mature politicians understand the importance of working together”, he also praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and said his non-performance as PM was thanks to lack of “authority and independence”.

“I would certainly give Dr Manmohan Singh a lot of credit for the work he did as finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government. Even as prime minister, he may have been able to do some good work had he been given the authority and independence to function…I certainly respect him as an individual,” Modi

told ET.

The BJP prime ministerial candidate, who answered a series of questions emailed to him by ET, was clear that protecting “investor sentiment” was a top priority.

While he reiterated the BJP manifesto’s “reservations” on retail FDI, he also, and significantly, said his government will “ensure” there’s “no lack of continuity” and that no message is sent out that “adversely impacts” foreign investor sentiment.

“…We are...committed to take care of investor sentiment and to ensure that we do not send any message of uncertainty and lack of continuity in decision-making process which is likely to adversely impact the confidence of investors in general and foreign investors in particular,” Modi said.

Modi’s comments on investor sentiment acquire significance because his stress on “policy continuity” suggests both a more nuanced approach to FDI issues as well as a hint that investor concerns about issues such as taxation may get high priority.

Modi was clear that he doesn’t expect any foreign policy hiccoughs on account of what’s been widely perceived as troubled relations with the US. “Individuals or events” do not influence bilateral relations, Modi said, and dismissed talk of post-2002 difficult relations as “figments of imagination of certain people”.