London: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Nov 8, 2004) asserted his UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government would adopt "carrot and stick" policy to carry forward economic reforms through a broad consensus and said he was convinced that Left allies had "reasonable appreciation of what is possible and what is not."

"I am constantly in touch with leaders of Left parties and am convinced that they have a reasonable appreciation of what is possible and what is not," Singh said adding, "It is wrong to interpret a democratic debate as 'permanent crisis management'."

The UPA Government was engaged in healthy debate on the "pros and cons" of many issues, Singh said in an interview to London-based 'Financial Times' to a question that there were worries he was engaged in permanent crisis management with the Left.

In the long run, he said reform programme that had the widest possible social and political support was more enduring and "I would like the world to appreciate the fact that we have been successfully carrying out reforms for over two decades within a democratic framework."

Singh said it was not entirely true to say it would be difficult to crack the problem of reforms as the UPA relied on many State Governments for the coalition to survive.

"The Central Government has enough instrumentalities -- both the carrot and the stick -- to ensure that the reform process goes forward. My feeling is that we are going to succeed in that. We need a lot more decentralisation," he said.