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I feel privileged to promote India: PM
Manmohan on Friday smartly deflected criticism within UPA that he was behaving like a "salesman" soliciting foreign investment.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday smartly deflected domestic criticism that he was behaving like a "salesman" soliciting foreign investment, saying he was "privileged to play the role of promoting India".
"I am here to sell India. As prime minister, it is my duty that I should promote India," said Singh at his press conference at the end of his trip.
Saying he was privileged to get that role, Singh said he had not done anything that Jyoti Basu, the former West Bengal Chief Minister and Marxist ideologue, would take exception to.
He was responding to a question on Basu reportedly questioning his role as "salesman" for the country in quest of foreign investment during his trip to London and New York, particularly his speech at the New York Stock Exchange where he asked American businessmen to invest in India.
He said it was necessary to tell the rest of the world about what India was doing.
Singh said he had met Basu and other Left leaders before leaving for his trip to the US via London and had explained to him the purpose of the visit.
He claimed he had no opposition from either his Congress party or his coalition to his policies to attract foreign investment needed to build roads, ports and other infrastructure that was not possible through internal resource mobilisation alone.
The Prime Minister said the country needed two to three times the present level of foreign direct investment.
