Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday that the many challenges facing the nation need to be addressed immediately, because if they are not, it “could have disastrous consequences … as a nation we have to be alert”.
Dr. Singh’s remarks came after releasing former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar’s book Hope in a Challenged Democracy: An Indian Narrative here on Monday evening.
In a short speech, interspersed with Urdu couplets, Dr. Singh also remarked, “I am also reminded of what Mao Zedong said when asked by a Western delegation what he thought of the French Revolution: ‘It is too early to judge.”
Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who was the chief guset, said, “It is a truism that all democracies contain within them tensions between societal constraints and individual liberties, dictates of state security and citizen’s freedom ... ”
Former diplomat K.S. Bajpai said democracy was facing a challenge not just in India but elsewhere too.
Shashi Tharoor, MP, and journalist Mrinal Pande interrogated Mr. Kumar on the book.
