NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said: “tough” reforms are “very difficult in the Indian context,” as “we are too much of a democracy”.
On Tuesday, the NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said: “tough” reforms are “very difficult in the Indian context,” as “we are too much of a democracy” but the government has shown “courage” and “determination” in pushing such reforms across sectors, including mining, coal, labour and agriculture.
His remarks came in the midst of talks between the government and protesting farmers over the new agricultural laws. Mr Kant said: the changes in the legislation provide alternatives to farmers to sell their crops without doing away with the system of MSP (minimum support prices) and mandis.
At an online event organised by Swarajya magazine, the NITI Aayog chief said these reforms need to be implemented and more are needed in logistics and power sectors to make India a manufacturing powerhouse competing with China.
When asked whether the Covid-19 pandemic presents an opportunity for India to take the lead in manufacturing, given that similar attempts in the past had not taken off”, Mr Kant said: “So tough reforms are very difficult in the Indian context, we are too much of a democracy. For the first time, the government has had the courage and the determination to carry out very hard-headed reforms across sectors… mining, coal, labour, agriculture… these are very, very difficult reforms… You needed a huge amount of political determination and administrative will to carry out these reforms which are being done.”
However, after Hindustan Times reported Mr Kant’s statement about ‘too much of a democracy, the official called out the daily saying he never said that.
“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,” Mr Kant responded to HT’s tweet.
Though, social media users were quick to call out Mr Kant, tweeting videos of his interaction where he could clearly be heard saying the reported statement.
HT se tweet toh delete karwa diya par Swarajya channel se video delete karwana bhool gaye pic.twitter.com/03Kjvk4BYq
— Kapil (@kapsology) December 8, 2020
Why would you take it down without a proper fact check? One can clearly hear him say in this video.
— Raqib Hameed Naik (@raqib_naik) December 8, 2020
However, Mr Kant did not respond to the videos attached by users, while his tweet still remains on his timeline.
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