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MUMBAI:
On the occasion of India's 60th year of independence, BBC World
in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India,
presents The World Debate hosted by BBC presenter Tim Sebastian
on the topic of India: Cherishing Democracy, sharing prosperity?
Recorded
during the Incredible India at 60 celebrations in New York, the
debate presents a panel of eminent guest speakers, expertly moderated
by the BBC's Tim Sebastian in front of a live audience. The panel
comprises of Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Shabana
Azmi, Dr Dipankar Gupta and Ramachandra Guha.
Asked
by Tim Sebastian what should be done, after 60 years of democracy,
about the 300 million who are not celebrating and living in terrible
conditions, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia replies, "The whole
point about a democracy is that you don't forget about people. At
the time of independence 70 per cent were below the poverty line.
Today it's 25 per cent. That's still too high and child malnutrition
is still particularly bad example of the consequences we should
get rid of but the percentage of population taken above the poverty
line is substantial. What you're celebrating is not the success
of a few but the upliftment of some hundreds of millions of people
from poverty to what might not be called prosperity but a better
form of existence."
Dirpankar
Gupta adds, "The problems of the vast majority are not addressed
because we're too busy congratulating ourselves on the things we've
done. I'm not taking away from the fact some people have done very
well - all power to them, but there's something called democracy
which means delivering to the masses in a very concerted fashion
and not in a trickledown fashion or after a fact… There should
be a very determined and concerted attempt at delivering public
goods at quality levels to the public".
Asked
why this has not happened, he replies, "lack of political will".
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