(...Contd)

Primacy of Social Purpose
Business, products, labour and the consumer constitute the four limbs of economic order. If all the four limbs discharge their functions properly and well, with a sense of social responsibility and as partners in a cooperative endeavour, they will be contributing to a smooth economic order. If any one misbehaves, seeks to achieve its private interests at the expense of others or tries to subordinate or exploit the rest, the economic order is disrupted, conflict springs and chaos will ensue.
But whoever misbehaves, the privation, the sufferings and the repercussions fall on all alike and it is the nation’s progress that is retarded. Therefore what is of primary importance is that everyone should have the social purpose at heart and private and personal interests should be subordinated to the national interests and collective well-being of all. This calls for enlightened leadership. No amount of legislation can totally eliminate evils like corruption or nepotism, authoritarianism or despotism, tyranny or exploitation, black-marketing or profiteering. It is only by culture and raising of the individual consciousness and through it the general consciousness that the evils can be eradicated.
The crux is the individual. Each man must begin with himself, irrespective of what others do or fail to do. A little less of selfishness, a little less of preoccupation with one’s own egoistic pursuits, a little less of fascination for power and pelf can go a long way in transforming society.

Responsibility
Modern society is so complex and changes are taking place so rapidly that the dividing line between the legitimate activities of the State and of business must of necessity be flexible. It is not by sheer accident that the countries which enjoy highest standard of living, the greatest measure of social justice and the maximum personal freedom are the very countries where development has taken place within the framework of a democratic system and a free enterprise market economy. A democratic system and free enterprise are then the sine qua non of a stable, self-generating, progressive economic order. This is because any economic order has man as the basis and it is an indisputable law of human nature that man will strive, exert his utmost, give his best and seek to attain progress only in an atmosphere of freedom which gives him scope for initiative, enterprise and self-culture.
Cribbed and confined in a regimented society, man will lose all initiative for enterprise and endeavour and social degeneration and economic distortions will be the ultimate result. It shall, therefore, be the prime concern of Government, in so far as economic affairs are concerned that it should create and maintain an environment in which business can discharge its responsibilities to society with the maximum freedom from interference. It shall be the solemn responsibility of business to avail of this environment of freedom to the building up of a stable progressive economic order consistent with public good.
All our economic, fiscal and monetary policies have to be so reoriented as to subserve the overriding need of achieving greater production and all factors of production have to cooperate in this task wholeheartedly keeping national interest above private interests.
The responsibility is on each one of us, whether we are in Government or in business, whether in management or working in factories and farms, to whichever political persuasion we may belong, to set an example by practice so that the spirit of hard work, service and sacrifice may spread wider and wider and we may once again witness the resurgence of nationalism, unity and determination among the people in the arduous task of economic rebuilding of our nation.