Indian civil servants and economists are more Leftist than the political parties, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said Saturday. Speaking at the release of a book The Nehru Development Model, written by Arvind Panagariya, Chairman, 16th Finance Commission, Kant said, “I have the greatest regard for Dr Panagariya for the simple reason that he is one economist who believes in free markets. He’s got an absolute conviction about free trade and he believes in free enterprise and there are very few economists like him in India.” “I have been a long-time believer that it will not be possible for India to grow at a high rate for a long period of time without free enterprise and many of the things that I pursued in my career were born out of many of his readings,” Kant said. He further said, “I have worked in both state and central governments and every single civil servant and economist I have come across are more Leftist than the political parties. In Kerala, I used to meet all economists coming out of the CDS [Centre for Development Studies]. They were more Leftist. The Congress was more leftist than the Leftists… It was incredible…” “I have been a believer that if India has to grow rapidly at high rates, you need to really dismantle many of the things..,” he said. Speaking about India’s first PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy, Kant said, “I would also like to say that while Nehru's legacy is undoubtedly complex, yet his vision had laid the groundwork for many of India’s achievements in education, science and technology. To my mind, these investments in human capital have yielded long-term benefits. Moreover, Nehru's commitment to secularism and pluralism has influenced India's constitutional framework and democratic discourse, but on the economic policy front, there is much to talk about, and that legacy is highly debatable.”
