New Delhi: Hitting out at the government for its decision to restructure the Planning Commission and rechristen it as “Niti Aayog”, the Opposition on Thursday said the move is just a “fluff” and mere “gimmickry”.
They also expressed their apprehension that the new body will pave the way for discrimination, as “corporates will call the shots” in policy making in the country.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury termed the renaming of the Planning Commission as aniti aur durniti (no policy and bad policy).
“If the government wants to greet people with fluff and not substance on the first day of 2015, then there is nothing more that can be said... If the North Block or the finance ministry has a very short-term view of both fiscal and monetary objective, is going to be the final arbiter between the states and the Centre.
It being the stakeholder in the process, I am afraid, is going to discriminate against the states,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said.
“After all, what was the Planning Commission doing? It used to plan policy. So by changing the nomenclature from Planning Commission to Niti Aayog, what is the message this government is trying to send,” Mr Tewari said, adding that Congress’ opposition to restructuring of the Planning Commission was based on “principles”.
Mr Yechury said, “just a change of nomenclature and gimmickry doesn’t serve any purpose. Let’s see what the government plans to do.”
Veteran CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said that dismantling of the Planning Commission and bringing in a new body in its place will lead to an unregulated economy.
“It is not a change of name. The Planning Commission is being abolished because they (government) don’t believe in planning,” he said. “The government would like to have a full-market economy (which is) totally unregulated,” he said.
