Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM releases K.S. Bajpai's book on Democracy & Diversity

"I am delighted to have this opportunity today to release a book edited by my friend, Shri Shankar Bajpai. I have greatly admired Shri Bajpai's diplomatic and intellectual skills and have benefited over the years from his wisdom, knowledge and experience. Releasing this book is thus only one way of expressing my profound gratitude to him for his friendship, his support and above all, his guidance and advice.

He has not only been an accomplished and distinguished diplomat but also a profound interpreter of the world to India. He has also been, and continues to be, an important voice from India in global forums. What I do admire about Shri Bajpai is his keen understanding of India's heritage, India's history, India's place in the world and India's manifest destiny. He has an equally authoritative grasp of the world today and of the many challenges facing it. It is, therefore, my privilege today to release this important book.

I am happy that this joint intellectual effort of Indian and American scholars focuses on our shared experience with the functioning democracy and its practice in our country. It has become a clich� to refer to India and the United States as the world's largest and boldest democracies. There was a time when there was much cynicism in intellectual circles and in diplomatic circles about the relevance of democracy as a cementing force between India and the United States. I recall the title of the book by Denis Kux, "Estranged Democracies". It underscored the fact that democracy was in itself not a binding element in our relationship.

However, in more recent years there is growing recognition of the fact that common values are as important as shared interests in defining international relations. Our common values are rooted in the practice of our democratic institutions. Both Indians and Americans feel extremely possessive of and jealously guard their democratic inheritance. Neither society will give up democracy for anything else.

Democracy, however, is a living institution and requires constant nurturing and revitalization. This is a point that Shri Shankar also emphasized in his remarks. Both political leaders and intellectuals have an extremely important role to play in this process. Books like these are, therefore, very valuable since they help us understand the functioning of our democracy, its weak points, its strong points and how we can improve upon it. I look forward to reading this book with great interest.

I compliment Shri Bajpai for facilitating this joint enterprise between Indian and American scholars. One of the hallmarks of an open society is its ability and willingness to intellectually engage other societies. Such intellectual interaction is both enriching and educative. I would like our academic communities to be more open to dialogue and joint research with academics from all other countries.

In the recent past we have been far too inward looking. This was not the case in the early years after independence. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru encouraged scholars from across the world to come and study the great Indian experiment. I recall, in my own student days and in my early teaching years, several intellectuals from across the world coming to India and working here. Some of the best minds of the post-war period, both in social sciences and in physical sciences, have taught in Indian universities and have written extensively about India. There has been a weakening of that tradition more recently. It is important that as an open society we must revive that tradition. I recall when I was in the Planning Commission in mid 80s, I discovered a letter written by Jawahar Lal Nehru himself to the Planning Commission. India's Second Five Year Plan was being debated and it was Jawahar Lal Nehru who suggested that we get hold of a critic like Milton Friedman to look at what we were planning to do. That openness, that commitment to dialogue is something which we need to recapture as we grapple with more difficult challenges at any time in our long and tortuous history.

I would like in this connection that our visa regime as well as the policies of our universities and research institutions to be more liberal. I am at times disappointed when scholars write to me saying that they have difficulties in getting timely clearances for working on various projects of interest to them. I have been grappling this with our Ministries but I don't think I have succeeded entirely in overcoming the obstacles that come in the way of greater interaction between academics in our country and academics in the rest of the world.

The issue is `Can a poor country, so diverse, so varied, survive as a democracy?' I recall when emergency was declared in June 1975, I was in Paris. I was leading the Indian delegation to the meeting of the consortium and then came the news of the imposition of emergency- when a friend of mine who was a friend of India, rang me saying that well, the expected has happened obviously a country at such primitive stage of development cannot afford the luxury of a democracy. The fact that we have proved those critics wrong is something which makes me feel proud as an Indian. As Shankar has said, there is no country of the size of our population, over a billion people, with our complexities, with our diversities, seeking its social and economic salvation in the framework of an open society, an open economy, committed to the rule of law, committed to the respect for all fundamental human freedoms, committed to the respect for all religions of the world which flourish in this blessed land of ours. Therefore, I have always believed if we succeed in what we have set out to achieve, our success will have a great deal of impact on the evolution of human kind in this 21st Century. Globalization is a reality. But so also is the search for roots, of preserving one's cultural identities. Therefore we need a mix of wisdom, knowledge and tradition to evolve the harmonious blend of institutions which will take care of both these twin concerns. And therefore India's success, I sincerely believe, can mean a great deal to the evolution of human society in this troubled 21st Century. India's experience over the past 60 years has certainly removed doubts about our ability to practice democracy. There were also critics in the 60s who doubted whether India would remain as one country. They were friends of India. We have proved all these critics, cynics wrong. But eternal vigilance is the price that we have to pay and therefore, there are weak points, there are corrosive influences at work.

The mix between dissent and consensus building- how do we evolve new patterns of dealing with the challenges that are now on the horizon. These issues require a lot more intellectual effort than is, has been going into the analysis of these processes. The problems of the North East, the problems in Jammu & Kashmir, the problems that we face in naxalite affected areas. They are well-known problems. Problems have persisted but solutions have to be found taking into account the varied needs of our time. I sincerely believe that social science research has a great role to play in illuminating the choices that are open before us as viable societies. I do not minimize the role of vested interests in human affairs. But like Lord Keynes, I have always believed that in the final anlaysis, ideas are far more important than vested interests. Anyway that is at least the common phase with all people who dabble in intellectual affairs - I think they must have to sustain them in their endeavour. Therefore, I am very happy that Shankar has assembled a very distinguished group of scholars from both the countries to look at this fascinating functioning of democracies in our two countries. This should give us a greater sense of confidence in dealing with the world. It should make us more open and I hope as a result, more willing to engage the world. I sincerely hope that will happen.

I once again compliment Shri Bajpai and all those who have been associated with this book project. May your tribe flourish."