{"id":1514,"date":"2020-12-08T18:41:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T18:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=135586"},"modified":"2020-12-08T18:41:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T18:41:11","slug":"too-much-democracy-niti-aayog-ceo-amitabh-kant-denies-what-he-stated-twice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/08\/too-much-democracy-niti-aayog-ceo-amitabh-kant-denies-what-he-stated-twice\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cToo much democracy\u201d: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant denies what he stated twice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, found himself in the middle of a controversy when he was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying, \u201cToo much of democracy hampering reforms in India\u201d while speaking at a virtual event organised by Swarajya Magazine. Kant took to Twitter to deny saying these words. \u201cThis is definitely not what I said. I was speaking about MEIS scheme & resources being spread thin & need for creating global champions in manufacturing sector,\u201d he Kant.<\/p>\n

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This is definitely not what I said. I was speaking about MEIS scheme & resources being spread thin & need for creating global champions in manufacturing sector. https:\/\/t.co\/6eugmtoinB<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Amitabh Kant (@amitabhk87) December 8, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hindustan Times tweet and article were based on a PTI report. After Kant\u2019s reaction, Hindustan Times deleted the tweet as well as the article. The link now opens to a page that states, \u201cThis story, sourced from news agency Press Trust of India, has been withdrawn<\/a>“. The PTI story, however, is available on other publications like Financial Express<\/a> and India Today<\/a> while The Indian Express has changed<\/a> its original headline of \u201cIndia has too much democracy, tough reforms difficult\u201d to \u201cIndia needs more reforms, states must take lead: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant\u201d.<\/p>\n

In fact, Swarajya tweeted that “some mischievous elements have attempted to distort” and quote Kant’s statement out of context.<\/p>\n

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Swarajya’s interaction with @amitabhk87<\/a> was on PLI & manufacturing and not on political systems. His response was in the context of spreading resources too thin & not creating global champions. Some mischievous elements have attempted to distort & quote it totally out of context.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Swarajya (@SwarajyaMag) December 8, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, IBTimes has already fact-checked<\/a> whether he made the statement and concluded that his remarks were taken out of context.<\/p>\n

What exactly did Kant say?<\/h4>\n

To find out what exactly Kant said, Alt News listened to the recording of the event<\/a> and found that he had indeed said India is \u201ctoo much of a democracy\u201d not once but twice.<\/p>\n

First, at 25.43, Kant can be heard as saying, \u201cIn India we are too much of a democracy so we keep supporting everybody\u201d. He went on to elaborate, \u201cFor the first time in India a government has thought big in terms of size and scale and said we want to produce global champions. Nobody had the political will and the courage to say that we want to support five companies who want to be global champions. Everyone used to say I want to support everyone in India, I want to get votes from everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Then at 33.03 he can be heard as saying, \u201cTough reforms are very difficult in the Indian context. We are too much of a democracy”. He goes on to add that for the first time the government has the courage and the determination to carry out hard-headed reforms across sectors. Then he elaborates about the \u2018political will\u2019 to carry out these \u2018hard-headed reforms\u2019.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

In both these instances, it is clear that the NITI Aayog CEO is referring to \u201ctoo much of a democracy\u201d of the past being a hindrance in producing global champions and in carrying out reforms. He backs this up stating how for the first time the government is hard-headed in its approach as opposed to \u201ctoo much democracy\u201d of spreading the resources thin by supporting and pleasing everyone.<\/p>\n

The organizer of the event Swarajya Magazine came out with a clarification that their interaction with Kant was on PLI and manufacturing, not political systems. They pointed out that his response was in the context of spreading resources too thin and not creating global champions. Kant may not be referring to democracy as a political system but as a participative approach of taking everyone onboard. But there is no denying that he used the phrase \u201ctoo much democracy\u201d with a negative connotation.<\/p>\n

Kant\u2019s statements and the context can be heard in the full video<\/a>. It is not clear what prompted the publications to delete their stories or change the headlines when a video of the interview is available and what he said was quoted verbatim.<\/p>\n

The post “Too much democracy”: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant denies what he stated twice<\/a> appeared first on Alt News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, found himself in the middle of a controversy when he was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying, \u201cToo much of democracy hampering\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1515,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514\/revisions\/1515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}