‘We are proud of it’: Government on Niti Aayog CEO’s democracy comments

While speaking at an online event, ‘The Road to Atmanirbhar Bharat’, organised by Swarajya magazine on Tuesday, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that tough reforms are difficult in the country because India is too much of a democracy, reported NDTV. He made these comments while replying to a question about whether COVID-19 has presented an opportunity for India to take the lead in manufacturing.

Following the event, Kant’s comments, especially the “too much of a democracy” part triggered a meme fest on the internet and also garnered some backlash. 

On Wednesday, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad confronted the subject and told NDTV, “We are proud of our democracy.”

During the event, Kant had said, “So tough reforms are very difficult in the Indian context, we are too much of a democracy. For the first time, the government has had the courage and the determination to carry out very hard-headed reforms across sectors – mining, coal, labour, agriculture.”

He added, “These are very, very difficult reforms. The easier reforms were done away with. You needed a huge amount of political determination and administrative will to carry out these reforms which are being done.”

Following the backlash, both Kant and Swarajya put out clarifications. Swarajya said, “Swarajya’s interaction with Amitabh Kant was on PLI and manufacturing and not on political systems. His response was in the context of spreading resources too thin and not creating global champions. Some mischievous elements have attempted to distort and quote it totally out of context.”

In a tweet, Kant clarified,”This is definitely not what I said. I was speaking about MEIS scheme (Merchandise Exports from India Scheme to reward exporters) and resources being spread thin and need for creating global champions in manufacturing sector.”