‘Democracy makes India an ideal destination for international players’

System offers ample opportunities to grow: Yashwant

(From left) Ravi Venkatesan, Paranjoy Guha, Yashwant Sinha and Navin Chawla in a session at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Monday. Photo: Rohit Jain Paras

Although policy uncertainties, slow growth and corruption discourage global investors from making a foray into India, the strength of democratic institutions has made the country an ideal destination for several international players and helped civil society, political parties and industrial houses achieve a meaningful growth.

Airing these views, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and the former Chief Election Commissioner, Navin Chawla, discussed different aspects of challenges before the Indian democratic and legal framework and the opportunities offered by the nation’s economy.

They were in conversation with corporate leader Ravi Venkatesan at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Monday.

The session at which these issues were analysed was devoted to the theme ‘Conquering the Chaos: Empowering the Future’. Journalist-educator Paranjoy Guha Thakurta moderated the discussion among the stalwarts in their respective fields.

Mr. Sinha, who has served as Finance Minister twice in the past, said India’s functional democracy had offered ample opportunities to individuals and corporate houses to grow, but there were certain parameters to which everyone should adhere. “Nobody should think that he [alone] has monopoly on public morality,” he said in an apparent reference to the Aam Admi Party.

Mr. Sinha’s assertion that the “majesty of Indian politics” had allowed the rise of a BJP leader with a humble background as the contender for the Prime Minister’s post was disputed by a few AAP members in the audience. JLF producer Sanjoy Roy intervened to ask the AAP members, wearing white caps with the slogan,

Mein Hoon Aam Admi, Mujhe Chahiye Purna Swaraj (I am a common man, I want complete Swaraj), not to identify themselves prominently with a political party, as the LitFest was open to everyone without any distinction.

Mr. Chawla said the Election Commission had made a tremendous contribution towards “conquering the chaos” by holding free and fair elections year after year, and ensuring an orderly transition of power.

Mr. Venkatesan — a former India head of two U.S. multinational corporations who has authored the book, 'Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere — said amendments to the Companies Act paving the way for compulsory corporate social responsibility would throw new challenges at the corporate sector.