On China and Economy, Dialogue Is the Need of the Hour

The strength of democracy is that debate and dialogue provide society with a self-corrective mechanism.

The news of Chinese transgression in Tawang on December 9 is disturbing. The opposition has repeatedly demanded a discussion in the parliament but the government has not agreed. The government’s stock reply is that the matter should not be politicised and that we should have full faith in our army and our brave soldiers.

This is diversionary since no one is saying that our soldiers are at fault or are not fighting valiantly. The issue is about policy and India’s political stance vis-à-vis China because of which the brave soldiers are suffering. A full discussion in parliament will help clear the air in this regard.

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Arun Kumar

Professor Arun Kumar, Distinguished Fellow at TPF, is the Malcolm Adisheshiah Chair Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi and was formerly professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University from 1984 to 2015. He has an MA (Physics) from Princeton University, USA and PhD (Economics) from JNU. His recent book (published in Dec 2020), Indian Economy's Greatest Crisis:Impact of The Corona Virus and The road Ahead, has generated great interest and discussion.