Will UPA govt be able tackle challenges of 2012?

In a special interview on CNBC-TV18 Kapil Sibal,HRD and Telecom Minister, Lok Sabha MP, Congress looks backward at the year that just ended and looking forward at the year that has just begun. He said, "I think 2011 was really bad for the world, if you really look at the global economy. It is probably the worst year that we have ever had where there is an impending global economy crisis."

Below is the edited transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying video Q: Let us start with the year that's ended. Many people would say that 2011 has been one of the worst years faced by any government for a long while. Many others say the country ended up feeling depressed perhaps even disillusioned. Would you agree on both counts?   Sibal: I think 2011 was really bad for the world, if you really look at the global economy. It is probably the worst year that we have ever had where there is an impending global economy crisis. If you look at the politics of the world, you see some element of dysfunction there and I think it's also true of India. I think yes, globally it's been a bad year, it's been bad year for India as well and I think we need to learn some lessons from it. Q: Lets focus a little on India and then lets come to this issue of the lessons that we need to learn. We had a year of scams and scandals, we had the central vigilance commission (CVC) imbroglio, we had the crisis over the handling of Anna Hazare and Ramdev and then it ended with a debacle over FDI in retail and the apparent debacle over the Lokpal. Many people say that the government's authority and credibility have been damaged? Sibal: The problem is the following, I think in the 21st century because of the enormous power of the media or democracies themselves are going through a new transition that hasn't happened before. You mentioned all these issues which are negatives and public perceives them as a negatives and rightly so. But there are lots of positives that have been happening which are not reflected and are not perceived by people at all because the nature of the media has changed in the last 2-3 years enormously. So though I think what you are saying is right, though I think in retrospect you could have said, you could done this way, you could have done that way. Take for example inflation, inflation is a big issue. Everyday there must be about ten debates on inflation in the parliament. Today inflation is 1%, in fact it is negative. Nobody is saying that what a great thing the government has done because we should understand, politics of India should understand that inflation is not controlled by intervention by government. For complete interview watch the accompanying video.