Comparing and contrasting diversity issues in India and the European Union (EU), NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya had said the world’s largest democracy is better positioned as a unified unit compared to EU and is bound to see substantial growth rates in the coming decades.
Responding to a concern on India frequently being referred to as a “noisy democracy” at an Industry body CII event in Delhi, the famous economist said India regardless of its enormous diversity and varied cultures along with traditions, has remained as a single cohesive unit.
Quoting economist Jagdish Bhagwati, Panagariya stated that Bhagwati told Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, as a result of comment upon India being a noisy democracy, that “You hear the noise, I hear the music”.
“This says the whole thing. Simply just think about it, Europeans, with far less diversity compared to India, today are still finding it difficult to become a single state. The whole movement in the direction of a single Europe is ridden with a lot of challenges.
“Even as a single monetary union there are concerns that Greece would most likely drop out of this union and in the near future Spain might drop out of the union,” he said.
He included that quite contrary to that, with much greater diversity in India, the country has remained as a single nation.
“And not simply have we stayed collectively, but the nation has grown over time. Because in today’s noise we tend to forget that in 1950s and 1960s when you go back there were so many separatist movements based on language, and so on,” he mentioned.
On the way ahead of time, he was quoted saying: “So I see it as a huge success of India’s democracy.
