NCP leader Supriya Sule on Wednesday hit out at the Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant for his 'too much democracy' remarks, calling it appalling. Citing a now-deleted tweet by an English daily regarding the same, she wrote on Twitter that such a statement by a senior government official was condemnable.
"An incredibly irresponsible statement in the worlds largest democracy - which we are so proud of. Long live democracy," Sule said in a tweet.
Amitabh Kant's comments during a recent virtual event has now become a full blown controversy, as political leaders and ordinary netizens lambast the official over a comment that he denies making. Others have since countered him by sharing video clips of the virtual interaction to make their point.
The Hindustan Times article that Sule quoted incidentally had caused quite a flurry yesterday as Kant reacted to it stating that he had not made the comment about there being "too much democracy".
"This is definitely not what I said. I was speaking about MEIS scheme and resources being spread thin and need for creating global champions in manufacturing sector," he explained.
This in turn had prompted HT to retract the article. "This story, sourced from news agency Press Trust of India, has been withdrawn," reads the article webpage now.
For those who have not been following the controversy, the PTI report had quoted Kant as saying that it was difficult to enact tough reforms in India as "we have too much of democracy". As the PTI article put it, Kant had noted that for the first time that the Centre has carried out hard reforms across sectors, including mining, coal, labour, agriculture, and the next wave of reforms must be pushed by the states.
"Tough reforms are very difficult in the Indian context, we have too much of democracy...You needed political will to carry out these reforms (mining, coal, labour, agriculture) and many more reforms still need to be done," he was quoted as saying. In a later report, the news agency had updated the story somewhat, although the controversial quote remained unchanged.
While Kant contends that his words had been misconstrued, and that he had not said that India had "too much democracy", netizens are reluctant to believe this. Many have since shared video clips of his comments to emphasise that the quote had indeed come from him.
There has been no further clarification from Kant on social media thus far.
Event organiser, Swarajya in the meantime has released a clarification and a transcript to underscore Kant's remarks.
