Sam Jawed - “Too much democracy”: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant denies what he stated twice

By Dilip -

What exactly did Kant say?   To find out what exactly Kant said, Alt News listened to the recording of the event and found that he had indeed said India is “too much of a democracy” not once but twice. First, at 25.43, Kant can be heard as saying, “In India we are too much of a democracy so we keep supporting everybody”. He went on to elaborate, “For the first time in India a government has thought big in terms of size and scale and said we want to produce global champions. Nobody had the political will and the courage to say that we want to support five companies who want to be global champions....

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant denies what he stated twice

Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?

Defying capitalism and socialism, Kumarappa and Gandhi had imagined a decentralised Indian economy - Venu Madhav Govindu & Deepak Malghan

Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, found himself in the middle of a controversy when he was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying, “Too much of democracy hampering reforms in India” while speaking at a virtual event organised by Swarajya Magazine. Kant took to Twitter to deny saying these words. “This is definitely not what I said. I was speaking about MEIS scheme & resources being spread thin & need for creating global champions in manufacturing sector,” he Kant. 

Democracy is the lifeblood of India: A rebuttal by Amitabh Kant

‘Too Much of Democracy’: Kant Denies Remark

Hindustan Times tweet and article were based on a PTI report. After Kant’s reaction, Hindustan Times deleted the tweet as well as the article. The link now opens to a page that states, “This story, sourced from news agency Press Trust of India, has been withdrawn“. The PTI story, however, is available on other publications like Financial Express and India Today while The Indian Express has changed its original headline of “India has too much democracy, tough reforms difficult” to “India needs more reforms, states must take lead: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant”. In fact, Swarajya tweeted that “some mischievous elements have attempted to distort” and quote Kant’s statement out of context. 

What exactly did Kant say? To find out what exactly Kant said, Alt News listened to the recording of the event and found that he had indeed said India is “too much of a democracy” not once but twice.

First, at 25.43, Kant can be heard as saying, “In India we are too much of a democracy so we keep supporting everybody”. He went on to elaborate, “For the first time in India a government has thought big in terms of size and scale and said we want to produce global champions. Nobody had the political will and the courage to say that we want to support five companies who want to be global champions. Everyone used to say I want to support everyone in India, I want to get votes from everyone.”…

https://www.altnews.in/too-much-democracy-niti-aayog-ceo-amitabh-kant-denies-what-he-stated-twice/

Hong Kong police arrest pro-democracy activists in widening crackdown

NB: This is not surprising, because the Chinese Communist Party has a long history of suppressing freedom of speech and opinion. Let us note however, the statement of the RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat: China has risen and doesn't care what the world thinks of it. Let us also note that the CEO of Niti Aayog believes that Indian democracy makes 'hard reforms' difficult. It's difficult to imagine that the RSS's dreams of 'greatness' and the economists' dreams of 'hard reforms' would ever adversely affect the status, power and incomes of these men who claim to know best what is good for us. Their ideologically driven agenda has two components, religious divisiveness for manipulation of mass sentiment; and use of state power for the benefit of monopoly capitalists on the other. The so-called Sangh Parivar is a delivery vehicle for corporate capital. They would like to see democracy demolished in order to realise their dreams of 'hard reforms' and great-power status. This is why they envy the totalitarian dictatorship of the People's Republic of China. DS

https://dilipsimeon.blogspot.com/2020/12/hong-kong-police-arrest-pro-democracy.html

Defying capitalism and socialism, Kumarappa and Gandhi had imagined a decentralised Indian economy - Venu Madhav Govindu & Deepak Malghan

Kumarappa was a greater economist than Dr Sen: Dr Mark Lindley

Soutik Biswas: Rare pictures of the last 10 years of Gandhi's life

Love at work - Mahatma Gandhi's Last Struggle  

The Compass We Lost 

Bapu tujhko salaam

SECULARISM IN A HOUSE OF GOD

Anil Nauriya: The making of Gandhi in South Africa and after

Martin Luther King on Mahatma Gandhi: "My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence", September 1958

Do our leaders want to certify political assassination?

Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?

Jairus Banaji on the history of Indian capitalists; and the BJP's ongoing assault on basic human rights

Book review - Svetlana Alexievich: Second hand time // Imagine the tragedy of abandoning Communism without knowing how to live with capitalism

Sam Kriss: 'Neoliberalism' isn't a left-wing insult but a monstrous system of inequality

Noam Chomsky: Internationalism or Extinction (Universalizing Resistance)

George Lakey on Capitalism, public health and the Nordic model

Tom Engelhardt : A vote for the apocalypse // Robert Roy Britt: Anti-Science Attitudes are Killing Americans

Patrick Cockburn: Trump, Erdogan, Modi, Orban, Bolsonaro – populist nationalists have met their match in the coronavirus

After the Truth Shower - Webinar on the Pandemic. April 26 2020


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