Crisis as opportunity: How the PM could use the 2G scam

Whether a political crisis weakens or empowers the PM depends on what use is made of it.

No one knows this better than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that every crisis is an opportunity.

His professional career took off in the early 1970s when he was called in by the Prime Minister of the day to handle India's worst inflationary crisis.

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Saturday, Dr Singh referred to the green revolution of the 1960s as an example of turning a crisis into an opportunity.

He also mentioned the economic reform and liberalisation programme of the early 1990s as another example of turning a crisis, the balance of payments crisis of 1990, into an opportunity.

He forgot to mention the third example, of the stock market scam of 1992, of a crisis that forced the pace of reform.

As Union finance minister, he launched the most far-reaching reform of the Indian financial sector.

Text: Sanjaya Baru, Business Standard

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