Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 1 (IANS) The government Tuesday rejected Wipro chairman Azim Premji’s criticism that there was “complete absence of decision making”, and said the comment “does not reflect reality”.

However, it also appeared not wanting to offend Premji, and described him as “an esteemed member of society and an established industrialist” whose “opinions matter”.

“We feel that impression or statement of his (Premji) does not really reflect the reality,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters here, when asked to react to the industrialist’s remarks.

“Maybe it is his perception. The idea is to rectify that impression of Azim Premji. Because he is an esteemed member of our society and an established industrialist…so his opinions matter. We will make extra effort to change that,” she said.

Asked about a group of eminent businessmen having expressed concern over lack of governance about a week ago, Soni said she could not agree with their conclusion.

“They are all eminent figures in their own field… I am afraid I cannot agree with you when you say there is lack of governance. I cannot agree with that perception at all,” Soni said.

She referred to the recent anti-graft movement in the country and said some people had voiced their “anguish and anger” against what they felt were issues that needed to be addressed and that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been “sensitive” to those sentiments and had responded to them in his public speeches at different fora.

“The thrust of the government is in the next two-and-half years, which remain of our mandate, to take schemes to their logical conclusion,” she said.

“In a democracy, a government always remains sensitive to the people’s voice and that’s how it should be provided that voice is institutionalised and reflects the reality. It works both ways. I think government is not insensitive,” she added.

Premji Monday slammed the government and warned that growth would suffer if prompt corrective action was not taken.

Last month, a group of prominent personalities that included Premji, Keshub Mahindra and HDFC’s Deepak Parekh, wrote a letter to the national leadership expressing concerns over a series of scams leading to what they termed as “governance deficit”.

In another ‘open letter’, they also endorsed the prime minister’s statement that economic progress must not be hijacked by internal dissensions.