To speak and to know
Last night, I was watching the 2005 review of Hardtalk on BBC. They had selected some of the best parts of their shows of 2005. Stephen Sackur was in India speaking to P. Chidambaram, our Finance Minister. I would like to congratulate and thank Mr. Chidambaram for making me feel like a proud Indian yesterday.
Sackur was asking Chidambaram how India was going to manage to emerge as an important player on the world economic scene when our neighbour and traditional rival, China was developing its manufacturing and services sectors much faster than we are. He was trying to intimidate our moneyman with stats and reports as follows: [not reproduced exactly…. just from what I remember]
Sackur: When Indians return from China after having observed the development the Chinese have made, they are so stunned that they are unable to speak for two weeks after their return.
FM: But they do speak later on…
Sackur: He is unable to speak for two weeks after his return…
FM: But he can at least speak…he can speak his mind in India!
What’s development without freedom of speech and expression? The Chinese may be truly efficient and we have a lot to learn from them but I could never accept being told when to open my mouth and when not to. Of course, India is not the ideal country where the Constitution and its aspects are applied completely. There are thousands of people/groups who are gagged and not allowed to reveal or speak about the things they want to. But I believe we are much better off. Our media are also freer than that of many of our neighbours…China, Malaysia…
Along with expressing oneself freely, every citizen must have the right to know what the government is up to. The Right to Information Act is a step in the right direction. But its scope is doubtful with bureaucrats wanting file notings to be excluded from the purview of the Act. Wonder what happened to the PM’s will to make Indian bureaucracy more accountable…
posted by Jemima at 11:05 PM
4 Comments:
A very complicated debate this 'China v India' .There are many factors that can be used as indicators to compare both these countries i.e. social,economical,political etc.
I think both the countries are worlds apart and each country has its own way of dealing with economic growth. India is a widely varied cultural democratic society wheras china is relatively single culture communist society. This itself affects most of the parameters that lead to development.
India will have to do a lot of catching up to do if it has to be equal to china but it will have to take into consideration its own condition. For me some of the most important indicators that we lag behind China is in general health of the population.
Source World Bank. Population below National poverty Line. India 29% China 5%. Child Malnutrition India 47% China 10% etc... Unless we improve on these base very important indicators we are still growing on a not so strong foundation... I am confident that these indicators will improve but by how much will have to be seen in the future ...
Hi Jemima, great to have found your blog. Have had no contact with you since you left symbiosis school. What are you upto? Journalism and all? Damn good.
my email is: siddharthdani@gmail.com
Jemima, I understand the importance of freedom of speech but I think there are more reasons why China will likely outdo India in the near future.
1) Fixed price of the Yuan - That's a really smart thing a Communist country can afford to do. The Indian rupee will strengthen at some point and our exports might plummet after that.
2) Planning - I read somewhere that in Shanghai they have a miniature version of the city in a musuem modelling how Shanghai will look a few years from now. India completely lacks such planning and it is hard to maintain healthy growth rates when you lack the basic infrastructure like roads, electricity and the like.
What works in India's favour is language. Let's see maybe some future rulers will see some of the drawbacks of unplanned development and correct some mistakes.
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