Development through democracy remains biggest challenge, says IT minister

Boston, Feb 7: In an apparent dig at China, communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday warned against the impulse to become an autocratic society for attaining faster growth and said development through democracy is more stable.

“Development through democracy is the biggest challenge today because in the heat of the moment people call for becoming some kind of an autocratic society,” Prasad said during a panel discussion on India at the prestigious Harvard University.

Referring to China's fast growth rate during the past decades, he said in a democracy development may be slower but it is stable. People in India, he said, wants the government to deliver with good governance and transparency.

China, which is ruled by the Communist Party since 1949, witnessed close to double-digit growth for over three decades.

However, growth has fallen steadily over the past five years and China clocked 6.9% GDP growth in 2015, its weakest performance in a quarter century, with analysts warning of a hard landing for the world's second largest economy.

Responding to a question, Prasad opposed the idea of disbanding the Indian civil services, which he argued brings in continuity and stability. At the same time, he felt the need of creating opportunities for bringing fresh minds to governance.

Speaking on the phenomena of regional parties in Indian politics, senior member of parliament Jay Panda said that it would be foolish to write off regional parties, which have been there for the past few decades.

“They may have in some sense reached the peak of their popularity, but they are not going away any time soon,” he said, adding there is a gradual evolution of two coalition system rather than two parties in Indian polity.

Panda also referred to the massive use of social media in recent elections in India. PTI