Union FM Sitharaman calls for prudent fiscal planning

Visakhapatnam: When a party is coming up with its election manifesto, there is a need to think whether it meets the allotted budget or not, suggested Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Participating as chief guest at NTR centenary celebrations organised at GITAM here on Friday she laid emphasis on utilising the money of the tax payers in a way it was supposed to be spent. "Governments can mobilise loans to multiply the wealth and assets but not to meet the expenditure or distribute," the Finance Minister said. Instead of making people dependent on welfare schemes that aim at short term benefits, the government should be able to make people self-reliant through long term benefits, she opined.

Underlining the need to debate over freebies, Nirmala Sitharaman defined good governance as not excessive preference or shortage of presence either. "Good governance should be looking for instruments with which objectives were able to be implemented in an effective manner," the Union Finance Minister emphasised.

Sharing her memories with NTR's movies, Nirmala Sitharaman said, "When you think of Lord Rama or Lord Krishna, no one would come to mind than NT Rama Rao. His acting skills were incomparable and his movies had authentic references to Puranas sans any fabrication. Politically too, NTR changed the way Indian politics would think about itself.

Back then, he understood good governance, introduced several reforms, setting aside what is standing in the way." Speaking about NTR, Lok Satta Party founder-president Jayaprakash Narayan said NTR was adept at balancing welfare and development, empowerment and good governance. Rather than making people slaves, NTR's agenda aimed at empowering people in the long run.

His pro-poor schemes centred on long term benefits of the people of united Andhra Pradesh. Today, governments have forgotten what they have to do, he said. "Unfortunately, India stays at the bottom five in top 49 countries in terms of 200 billion dollars of GDP along with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria in all indicators. Is that what India can aspire to be? Freebies are no good as it leads to nowhere. Political parties offer short-term freebies at the cost of long term public good. If we can convert the next elections into welfare Vs development, it will be a disaster politically," Jayaprakash Narayan opined.

Recalling significant contributions made by NTR both to the cinema and political world, BJP national general secretary Daggubati Purandeswari briefed how the monthly centenary celebrations of her father started recently from Tirupati which was the maiden destination for NTR to foray into the political journey. "NTR's governance largely focused on welfare and good governance at a time when the two terms were new in the political arena," Purandeswari said.

Dean of Indian Business School, Hyderabad Madan M Pillutla, GITAM president M Sribharath, CEO of Symbiosys Technologies O Naresh Kumar, among others, spoke as a part of NTR Memorial Lecture that focused on the theme 'on empowerment road to good governance. 'A brief journey of NTR was presented in the audio-video visual form on the occasion.