Reform must be insulated from political pressures: PM Narendra Modi tells G20 leaders

Brisbane: As he seeks to accelerate his economic reform drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said reform process is bound to face resistance and wanted it to be insulated from political pressures.

Making a strong pitch for economic reforms on Saturday, Modi told fellow G20 leaders at a Retreat here that reforms should lead to simplification of processes and that methods of governance must be reformed.

The retreat was hosted by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the Queensland Parliament House where the leaders met without aides shortly before the annual summit of the 20 industrialised and major economies kicked off at the Brisbane Convention Centre in the afternoon.

A barbeque lunch was served to the G20 leaders. "Reform is bound to face resistance...must be insulated from political pressures," said Modi.

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The Prime Minister also made it clear that reform has to be driven by the people and that it cannot be undertaken by "stealth".

Asserting that reform must be people-centric and people-driven, he said globally reforms are handicapped with perception of being government programmes and a burden on the people and this needs to change.

Modi felt that reforms should lead to simplification of processes and that governance methods must be reformed.

Noting that reform is a continuous multi-stage process and that it must be institutionalised, the prime minister said it must be technology driven and must have scale and address root causes.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told reporters yesterday that Prime Minister Abbott had specially requested Modi to outline his vision for reforms at the informal meeting of G20 leaders at the retreat in addition to his intervention at the main summit.

Read: G20 summit opens in Australia, growth tops agenda

In his remarks at the retreat, Abbott said the G20 leaders bear heavy responsibility to achieve economic change.

"Nowhere on earth will there be a more influential gathering than this," he told the group.

"The world is looking to all of us right now to try to demonstrate to an uncertain and at times anxious world there are people who know what they are doing, that there are people who have a plan... for growth and for jobs," Abbott said.

However, Abbott acknowledged there were limitations in what could be achieved, and that there would be inevitable disagreements among the leaders.

He urged them to speak candidly and openly at the summit.

"The only rules, as far as I'm concerned, are if we can speak from our heart rather than from a script, that would be good," he added.