I come from a State where we have taken the very deliberate step of introducing cooperative in certain consumer industries like textiles and sugar. This is not something very revolutionary. It has been done not only in Maharashtra but in Andhra and Mysore also. But the qualitative change that we see in the areas where these industries have been cooperativised is something one must go and see to believe. Establishment of a sugar factory by itself is not a very revolutionary step. Sugar industry is functioning in the country for the last 40 to 50 years. But if you go in the rural areas where you see large number of agriculturists themselves planning an industry, running it, and participating in it, there is a liberation of new social force. That is why I believe that there are certainly some political aspects of the economic problem. It is not enough to merely have a good government; people must feel that it is a good government. Similarly it is not enough to have economic solutions, people in the country must feel that the solutions are being worked out. The major problem in the country today is of giving the people a feeling that their problems are being solved. It is not a criticism; I know problems are being solved. I don't find there is any defect in the economic policy as such. But ultimately as a politician and administrator, you do not deal with dead objects. You deal with dynamic social situations. You have to deal with human beings. Therefore, I would like to restate what I was saying. There are two ways of dealing with the economic problems. One is the scientific way of taking a series of statistics, putting the scientific priorities of investments, working out the rate of growth and telling your conscience that you have found a solution. There is another way of dealing with the economic problem, and that is to take a survey of the problems around us and see whether we have solved any one of them.
As the Home Minister can I tell you how I look at the economic problems? Take for example the question of the talk of breaking the Constitution. Naturally we have to take very serious note of it and make these people aware of the serious mistake that they are making. But that is not enough. Thinking of this problem merely in terms of law and order is not enough. If we go to the rural areas, we find that there is discontent in the rural areas. What is the reason for it? We have been talking in terms of socialism. What is ultimately the basic aim of socialism? It is not merely nationalisation or socialisation. If I understand it, socialism, pre-supposes structural change in the economic relationship of the different classes. Can we say that such a structural change has been brought about in the economic relationship of different classes in the rural areas? I fear not. There are landless labourers, there are harijans, there are tribals, and these classes are seething with discontent and unless we find a solution to their problems we cannot claim to have found solution to the basic economic ills of the society.