‘We have edge over China’

Prime minister Manmohan Singh pitched for Indian democracy in an interview to London’s Financial Times published on Wednesday.

Though China’s growth story has long outstripped India’s, Singh insisted that as a functioning democracy India’s chances of sustaining growth and economic reforms are more “durable’’. The interview was conducted before he left for the G20 meet in London.

Singh’s remarks come as a tacit reminder to China that it lacks a key credential to contribute to global policy debate — democracy. The PM said the fact that the reforms he initiated in 1991 have been carried forward by successive governments, regardless of composition, shows the truth of his assertion.

Singh also mentioned human rights, which will not go down well with the Chinese, especially when the US wants Beijing’s help to stabilise the world economy. On her visit to China, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had ensured that human rights were not raised.