In the Indian Express, Idea Exchange, Sunil Munjal, Joint MD of Hero MotoCorp, speaks about fixing “government-industry interface“. In response to a question by MK Venu on the “uneasy relationship” of the current regime with business in the last year, he responds, “In the mid ’80s and early ’90s, business played a significant role in policy formation. Many reforms started in the ’80s and there was trust between the government and business in that period. A lot of the policies were either written and then discussed in the industry fora or even drafted by the industry fora. Reforms took place and the government stepped back from business activity”

Not that this comes as a surprise to anybody, but there is nary a squeak when business plays such a huge role in making policy to suit its own interests. However compare this with the contemptuous scorn for the NAC, giving space as it does to “jholawalas” in policy making (Indian Express in the vanguard). Few would disagree that NAC’s functioning needs improvement, however the attack is on the purpose of a body like NAC itself (a platform for people’s input into policy making), and not in improving its functionality.  Is the assault based on ideological or principled grounds?

Read: Deconstructing the NAC