PM Modi to Time: You don’t need dictatorship in India, democracy is in our DNA
During the two-hour-long interview on May 2, Modi also allayed fears of minorities under his government, saying he would take responsibility to ensure their “complete and total protection”.
India is a democracy not because its Constitution says so but because it is a “matter of faith” for its people and “is in our DNA”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said.
In an interview to Time magazine, Modi said India’s progress could be ensured only through an “innate belief in democracy” and not through “dictatorship” or by a “powerful person who believes in concentrating power at one place”.
During the two-hour-long interview on May 2, Modi also allayed fears of minorities under his government, saying he would take responsibility to ensure their “complete and total protection”.
Related
According to the text of the interview put on Time magazine’s website, Modi said his government would not “tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed, and religion”.
The Prime Minister said the performance in the last ten months had shown that his government was “moving very rapidly” to fulfill the expectations people had from it.
“I have in my mind a very clear outline of the framework of what we are going to do in the next five years. What we have done in the last one year is precisely as per that plan. And in the next four years, we have step-by-step measures that would unfold as we go along,” he said.
“Internationally, whether it is the IMF, the World Bank, Moody’s or other credit agencies, they are all saying in one voice, that India has a great economic future. It is progressing at a fast pace and has again become a factor of growth and stability in the international economic system. India is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world,” he said.
Modi was asked whether he thought that China’s faster economic growth could be attributed to that country’s one-party system and whether he “would love to” have the powers of President Xi Jinping to push his economic programmes through India’s political system. Modi said it was not necessary. And, that he would always choose democracy ahead of “wealth, power, and prosperity”.
“India by its very nature is a democracy. It is not just as per our Constitution that we are a democratic country; it is in our DNA… I firmly believe that for us, democracy and belief in democratic values are a matter of faith… So, if you were to ask me whether you need dictatorship to run India, no, you do not. Whether you need a dictatorial thought to run the country, no, you do not. Whether you need a powerful person who believes in concentrating power at one place, no you do not. If anything is required to take India forward, it is an innate belief in democracy and democratic values. I think that is what is needed and that is what we have,” he said.
“If you were to ask me at a personal level to choose between democratic values on the one hand, and wealth, power, prosperity and fame on the other hand, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democracy and belief in democratic values,” he said
Modi’s remarks come days ahead of his visit to China later this month. Asked about India’s relations with China, he said the two countries had shown “great maturity in the last couple of decades to ensure and commit to economic cooperation which has continued to grow over the last 20 to 30 years to a stage where we currently have an extensive trade, investment and project related engagement between the two countries”.
He agreed that “a large part” of India’s border with China was “disputed” but said it was “not a volatile border”.
“Not a single bullet has been fired for over a quarter of a century now. This essentially goes to prove that both countries have learnt from history.”
“Given the current economic situation in the world, we are at a stage where we cooperate with China at the international stage but we also compete with China when it comes to commerce and trade,” he said.
Asked about India’s ties with the United States, Modi said the two countries were “natural allies”.
He was also asked about President Barack Obama’s remarks that to succeed, India needed to ensure that it did not splinter along religious lines. Modi said acceptance of all religions was “in our blood”. “It is ingrained in our system to work together, taking all the religions along with us”.
He reiterated that for the government there was only one holy book and that was the Constitution of India. And he asserted that his government did not approve of any hate speeches or attacks against the minority community.
“In so far the Bhartiya Janata Party and my government are concerned, we absolutely do not believe in this type of ideology. And wherever an individual view might have been expressed with regard to a particular minority religion, we have immediately negated that… All religions and all communities have the same rights and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection.
My Government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed, and religion. So there is no place for imaginary apprehensions with regard to the rights of the minorities in India,” he said.
Source:: Indian Express
