Vajpayee introduced 'Good Governance': Dattatreyya

Hyderabad, Dec 25 (INN): Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatraya said it was former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who introduced the concept of 'Good Governance' in India as he had the vision to see that India could not become a developed nation without 'good governance'

"Vajpayee Ji's six-year stint as Prime Minister of the country was blemish free and saw the reforms required to transform India being implemented without fear or favour. The decision to award the Bharat Ratna to Sri Vajpayee jee is long overdue.

He has spent his life in the service of the nation and is an outstanding personality and the nation will be ever proud of him," Dattatreyya said while addressing a meeting to mark the 'Good Governance Day' here on Thursday.

Dattatreyya said Vajpayee's style of building consensus and taking bold decisions were exemplified in the initiatives for peace with Pakistan and his bus journey to Lahore, the decision to have an independent nuclear policy, the first Prime Minister to be able to serve a full term based on a coalition of parties, initiate economic reforms that resulted in over eight per cent growth in the GDP and the manner in which he resolved the disputes in the Telecom sector, by virtue of which almost every Indian now has access to mobile phones.

"When the people of the country wanted change, they chose a model for good governance in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for the work he had done in Gujarat.

The earlier scam free stint of the NDA at the centre also played a role in the decision of the Indian people who gave a majority on its own. There are many characteristics that the two Prime Ministers from the party share, like considering themselves as Pradhan Sevaks instead of Pradhan Mantris, taking bold decisions and placing the interests of the country over family and partisan interests," he said.

The Union Minister said that Vajpayee had demonstrated this bold and decisive nature many times in the last six months, the most recent being yesterday's ordinances relating to the coal and insurance sector. The bungling and inaction of the last ten years in these two sectors of the economy are well known.

Even though the opposition did not facilitate legislations in these two important sectors, the Assembly election results in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir have hopefully sent a clear message that the people are still with the BJP and NDA and that they are looking forward to an era of good governance, he said.

"It is in response to the aspirations of the people, out of respect for former Prime Minister Vajpayee ji and the need to inculcate the concept of good governance amongst the people and all those officials who are in a privileged position to serve, so that India becomes a developed nation, that Prime Minster has directed all of us to observe good governance day on Vajpayee's birthday," Dattatreyya said.

He urged all to strive to emulate Vajpayee's service to the nation and make his vision of good governance a reality.

Good Governance among other things, is about participatory, corruption free, responsive and empathetic and timely decision making, he said.