Aiyar says it all

Congress Minister attacks UPA policies
As the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) completes three years in power this week, Sports and Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has warned that the government badly needs a "midpoint course correction" as high economic growth has benefited classes rather than the masses to a "disproportionate" degree.
Reminding the government of its Common Minimum Programme of promoting the interests of "aam admi" (the common man), Aiyar said: "Alarm bells should be rung" as the government's economic policies have given "a disproportionate benefit to the classes".
In an interview with a television channel the minister warned that if the government does not correct course it would lose "the aam admi's support" in the next elections. "There's a disproportionate benefit of the 9.2 percent (economic growth) going to the classes. What I want to emphasise is not that there's no benefit going to the masses but that it needs to be much more consciously directed there," he told Karan Thapar in the interview broadcast Sunday morning.
"I fear that a government that is attempting to have an economic policy for the aam admi may not get the aam admi's endorsement," he said.
In an unsparing critique of his own government, Aiyar contended that its policies do not reflect the real interests of the majority of people of India and alleged that the policies are heavily influenced by elite institutions like the industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
"We must resist the tendency to look at the interest of the classes and instead take into account the interest of the masses," he added.
In a speech to the CII recently, Aiyar had said: "The masses determine who will form the government but the classes determine what the government will do."