@gpit-
What Manmohan Singh said was political rhetoric.
I hope you didn't take him seriously.
He is a decent man,to be fair to him,he has been successful to a large extent in improving the situation in Mumbai.
A lot of infrastructure projects are coming up-Metro,subways,monorail,freeways etc.
By Indian standards,things have and are improving quite well there.That is the reason why Congress won so many seats from Mumbai despite 26/11 and will form the government again with a decisive mandate.
It is surprising that gpit,you always try to malign and downgrade Indian democracy.
When democracy is India's greatest strength,the glue that has kept India together.
In response to one of your earlier posts,i will quote my replies again to reiterate a few points-
Geromix said:
India has shown the world that democracy and economic growth can co-exist.
For a democracy to succeed with economic liberty,what is needed is stability at the top with good leadership.Nothing else.
You obviously have little knowledge of Indian democracy and how it actually is changing the lives of minorities and lower castes in India.
It is only through democracy that got a voice.I am an Indian Christian and for the first time in my life i would be able to vote this coming elections,the Chinese can hardly imagine the power of one vote for a minority or an oppressed section of the society.
A hypothetical situation-
Imagine if India was like China but instead of China's CPC we had a Hindu Fundamentalist party ruling India without any democracy that would have been the death knell for minorities who are not upper caste Hindu Indians, which would have been about close to half of India's population.[I wouldn't have been here writing this!](Minorities+Lower castes would have been crushed)
India took the right path after 1947,in a diverse society like ours only democracy could have allowed creation of a just India.
Yes things are slow here but they development takes place after the people are consulted and mostly decisions in a democracy are "durable" in the words of Dr.Manmohan Singh.
He said that we were slow to liberalize,having done it only more than a decade after China in 1991 but surprisingly or not surprisingly successive governments DID not reverse policies even when the Left parties came to power.
Reforms continue to take place sometimes fast or sometimes slowly.
This is one of the greatest strengths of democracy and democracy is India's greatest strength without which we would have been in pieces with many sovereign states instead of one nation.
Geromix said:
Economic liberty would inevitably translate to political liberty(In India it is opposite),when the stomach of man is filled with bread he will demand the ballot!
You have zero knowledge regarding democracy in India and how it ts transforming India.
You put up an article showing that Indian democracy has been defeated by Chinese efficiency by 160 votes.
160 votes coming from a foreign country.
Compare that to 400 million+ votes that were cast this General elections.
160 votes v/s 400 million + votes
400 million + voters in India have chosen democracy.They have been doing so since India got independence.
If we Indians wanted dictatorship or Chinese style efficiency they would have chosen so by now.
But we haven't!
We got a chance in the form of Indira Gandhi,but people of India threw her out of power through the ballot.
Chinese are happy with what they have got,so be it.
We Indians, manage things through our way,we don't need preaching from others on what to do and not to.
As flawed as India's democracy is i
t is what that makes India, India.
There is nothing wrong with democracy as such,it is the problem of poor leadership.
Good Leadership when combined with democracy gives you the right formula for development.
There is not a shadow of doubt,Indians are envious of China's infrastructure and progress,but given a choice-
Choose Chinese model with no democracy or Indian developmental model with democracy.
India will always choose democracy.
It is futile to try to compare as both systems in China and India are well entrenched.
It s a bit like comparing apples and oranges.
The best judgment on a particular system comes from the people of that country and not from outsiders like you.
(In this same topic,duhastmish had a different view on Mumbai,there have been differing views from Indians,but i have yet to see a Chinese with a different point of view.Do they not exist in Shanghai?)