Describing himself as a “private citizen” who will speak neither for Treasury nor for Opposition benches, former President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday heaped praises on late Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Manmohan Singh for ushering in liberalisation but did not lay the blame for faltering of reform process at anybody’s door.

Instead he sounded a stern warning for the powers that be to ensure that policy formulation and its implementation go hand in hand as otherwise the entire system would be dragged down by a malnutured and jobless populace.

Tracing the growth of the economy from a snail’s space to a much needed accelaration with occasional hiccups during the course of a lecture on ‘Prospects of Economic Growth and Policy Imperatives for the Indian Economy’ organised by Calcutta Chamber of Commerce, the former President zeroed in on the causes which led to the economy’s setback.

As the country’s economy was riding high in the first decade of this millennium, the indiscretion and recklessness of Lehman Brothers led to banking crisis the world over and had its fallout on the Indian economy, he said.

If the setting up of G-20 was a step to restore a world economy in a shambles, the second shock was administered by Euro Zone crisis, the former President said. The nation’s economy was on the point of turning around and the crisis delayed the process, he recalled.

Political uncertainty of the ‘90s is a thing of the past, the former President said. But now that political stability has been achieved, all the states and Union territories have to work with uniform speed towards a common objective to ensure that co-operative federalism, a corner stone of growth does not remain a theoritical concept, he said.

New markets have to be explored and the farming sector have to be strengthened further to feed a burgeoning population, the former President who had held the finance portfolio on two occasions said. It was Narasimha Rao who formulated the “Look East” policy and Singh who implemented it, thereby giving our enrtrepreneurs markets for new products, he said.

The former President said 48 per cent of the population who are below 40 years is a rich human resource ready to be tapped. India can have high growth, but to sustain it for decades all the related issues have to be addressed, he said signing off.