Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that a strong government doesn’t mean simply military power but effective administration.
Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that a strong government doesn’t mean simply military power but effective administration.
“Strong government doesn’t mean simply military power or an efficient intelligence apparatus. Instead, it should mean effective, fair administration—in other words, “good governance,” Rajan wrote in a newspaper article. “Access to education, nutrition, healthcare, finance, and markets for all our citizens is a moral imperative, precisely because it is a precondition for sustainable—and democratic—economic growth,” Rajan said in the context of India.
This is one of the first instances where Rajan has commented on India after he left RBI.
Last November Rajan delivered a speech at IIT Delhi that made a case for tolerance, at the height of the controversy over the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq. That speech, titled “India’s tradition of debate and an open spirit of enquiry”, called for a spirit of inquiry and debate in Indian universities and that this would lead to an intellectual eco-system that fosters innovation which is critical for economic growth.
In the latest piece, Rajan argues that a strong government may not necessarily move in the right direction. “Hitler provided Germany with effective administration: the trains ran on time (as did India’s trains during our Emergency in 1975-77). But Hitler put Germany on a path to ruin, overriding the rule of law, without which democracy can lead to the tyranny of the majority,” Rajan wrote.
Source: News18