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India’s mindset must change, say Singapore leaders

SINGAPORE: India must “change” its “mindset” about domestic politics and economic development in order to keep pace with China in this post-modern age.

This was the core message from senior Singapore leaders, either in plain-speak counsel or through nuanced hints, at the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ (PBD) conference here on Friday.

In an interactive session with the delegates, Singapore’s elder-statesman and Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, emphasised that the interplay of democratic forces in India had certainly ensured that it “stayed together” in diversity. However, “on the negative side, you have parties that are determined to bring the government down; and they don’t want to wait till the next election.”

Commenting on India’s political controversies over its civil nuclear energy deal with the United States, and outlining “the difference” in Britain, where opposing parties had united to face the current financial storm, Mr. Lee said: “There must be a certain common ground where the national interest must prevail.”

Viewing the nuclear deal as a new “plus-plus” factor on the global scene, he said Washington “made a wise decision” in the context of the “responsible” manner in which New Delhi had always “guarded” its nuclear programmes.

Concerns about India’s energy security and the related global warming issues were also at stake. And, in the global geopolitical calculus, the accord “helps to maintain peace and balance in Asia.”

Contrasting New Delhi’s economic “mindset” with the vision of China in propelling its economy at a space-era speed, Mr. Lee said Indians would have to “accept” that “a developed India means an urban India.”

In a separate dialogue with the ‘PBD Singapore’ delegates, the City-State’s Senior Minister and former Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, said the “different systems” in India and China defined their economic profiles as well.

His slow-moving initiative for a special economic zone in the Indian context should not, therefore, be seen “in a negative sense” against his interactions with China regarding its Singapore-aided eco-city project, now on a fast track.

For this reason or otherwise, Singapore has not so far made a formal proposal for an eco-city in India as well.

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