A new work ethic needed, says Gandhi

Press, 14 November 1984, Page 10

A new work ethic needed, says Gandhi

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi The Indian Prime Minister, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, has told the nation that he will continue the policies of his mother.

In his first main policy speech since he took office on October 31, Rajiv Gandhi told a nation-wide television and radio audience that India would remain nonaligned, secular, and united. “Vested interests, both internal and external, are inciting and exploiting communal passions and violence to divide India,” he said. More than 1000 people died in widespread anli-Sikh violence after Mrs Gandhi’s killing by two Sikh body- . Mr Gandhi called for an Indian society dedicated to work and to achieving goals, and promised . punishment for civil servants who did not serve the people. “A new work ethic, a new work culture must be evolved in which Government is result-bound and not procedure-bound,” he declared.

Mr Gandhi pledged to retain India’s mixed economy allowing for private and public sectors, which had brought self-sufficiency in agriculture, industry, and several fields of technology. India highly valued the wide-ranging and time-hon-oured relationship with the

Soviet Union, based upon mutual co-operation, friendship, and vital support when most needed, he said.

India had a “multifaceted” relationship with the United States and valued co-operation between the two countries in such fields as economics and technology. Political analysts said that the speech had been comprehensive and showed a keen eye for detail. It could be the opening shot in an election campaign, the date for which may be announced this week. Mr Gandhi was elected as president of the Congress (I) Party earlier, a post held also by his mother, which gave him an iron grip on the party. The decision was made at a meeting of regional leaders and chief Ministers of states governed by Congress (I). After the meeting Mr Gandhi appointed his two closest associates, Arun Nehru, a cousin, and Arun Singh, an old schoolboy friend, both in their early 40s, to key administrative posts of general secretary and parliamentary secrekeeping up the pace set since his mother’s murder, Mr Gandhi named a Supreme Court judge to head the inquiry into the: assassination. -