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iInterview with Manvendra Singh, Sachin Pilot, and B.J. Panda

The IndiaCIA The World Factbook

YI: What about China? There is a great demand for fuel from India, so you will be competing with China.

Sachin Pilot: It's strange. No one ever talks about Canada and USA competing with each other. Why can't China and India co-exist and quote its economies and quote its people. It would be cheaper. I think India and China are neighbors and know every well they can change enemies but you can't change neighborhood. We have to co-exist. Our relations have steadily improved in a every sense of the word. We have bilateral exchanges, and I think the Chinese are also looking at India with making it a partner in mind. So, I think the competition is a heavy competition. It's bound to be in terms of making our people's lives even better than they are today. There is enough space for the Indians and the Chinese to start about beating each other down, it's really about forging alliances, helping each other and really making the lives our people better than they have ever been. And you touched on the point of looking for oil. I think the energy needs of a country like India or China are growing at a tremendous pace. So there are areas where we beat out each other, but there are areas where we can join hands. I think it's a matter of economics. But I think the big animosity that some peopled predicted never happened with China is unfounded. So we have our own viewpoints, our foreign policy, our own defense policy and they are very clearly stated. But it doesn't mean that it has be at all times contradictory. It's already stated we have a warm relationship and it's bound to get better.

YI: Mr. Panda, I'm not in quite agreement with Mr. Pilot, because China in Southeast Asia is becoming very dominant. Should we be concerned about China's expansionist moves?

B.J. Panda: First of all, we have to recognize that the world today has become multi-polar. It's not a Cold War scenario where you had two large players. Today, you have both China and India emerging as economic super-powers. China already has it, while Australia is the merchant. I think India and China certainly have a great reason to cooperate together. In fact, some of that cooperation is already happening. You mentioned the global hunt for energy, particularly oil. And that is a very good point because both India and China have a hugely exploding demand for oil. And you would expect there would be a great deal of confrontation between our needs and their needs. There is some of that, and there is some competitiveness, but there is also cooperation. In certain areas of the world, Indian and Chinese oil campanies are cooperating. Also you must remember that China and India have great complementarity. For example, the Chinese have become the manufacturing hub of the world. And we have a lot to learn from China. Equally, I think, China has a lot to learn from India, in terms of a service company, for example IT and if you add value to services, India has the capability which could send to the rest of the world. India has a thing or two to show to the rest of the world. So, there is complementarity, there are instances of cooperation, and yes, of course, there will always be competititon. So, all in all, I will take a very positive take on this.

YI: Some people in Southeast Asia feel there is value in trying to approach India to as to balance the power in Southeast Asia against China.

B.J. Panda: It's not just people in Southeast Asia that think this way. I've heard the same thought expressed in think tanks, in western countries, that India can be a counterweight to China. We in India don't see thing that way. We see things from the point that after many centuries of decreased relevance to the world, India today has a much greater leverance to the world. For the past 16 years, we have been the flag-bearer for democracy and for the have-nots. We continue to hold that position and today, in addition to that, we have become a flag bearer for showing that democracies can also get their economic act together. For those that think India should be a counterpoint to China, I think that's a narrow kind of thinking. There would be other counterpoints to China as well. You should try to talk to the old developed economies of Europe, there is a... Ein certain areas going on. You can't write off America's position as the biggest economy and the biggest military superpower in the world. This is not going to change in a hurry, but we have to get used to living in a multi-polar world.

YI: The last question is the same to all you three gentlemen. Where do you expect India to go in the next 10 to 20 years?

Manvendra Singh: I want India to be a better country than what it is today where democracy is even more entrenched than it is today and where society is even more free to pursue its goals and visions. And I want India to play a role regionally, to give a message of a country that has advantages, that is united by a vision, a truly story success, that only India is. It's something that the European Union is trying to achieve and which India has achieved in the past 60 years. And I'd like to be the beacon of that story.

Sachin Pilot: The Union of India, that's what I call it. We have 22 states, caste, languages, I think it's a great sense of security for us to know that you live along this and democratic set ups. Moving forward, how I see progressing is .. economy is booming people are talking about India pretty much everywhere. But I think I would want every single Indian, in the remotest part of the country who are still untouched by economic development. Those people need to be empowered socially, economically and politically. Even if that takes a decade longer, I'm going to wait for that. I think the disparity between the rich and the poor is something that we will have for a long time, but we must listen to the people who voice hunger.

B.J. Panda: If you look at the last 15 years, India has made huge strides, particularly on the economic front., but also in so many social aspects in terms of getting people, the underclass of society, to be more participative, more involved in society. So my vision for the next 10 to 12 years will be simply more of the same. We've gone from a growth rate of around 3 to 4 percent, to a growth rate of really 9 percent. But as China has shown, even large countries cannot sustain double digit growth for a decade or more. Today we've come to knocking double digit growth. My vision is, we should not stop double digit growth but we should sustain double digit growth for the next 10 to 20 years. And if we do that, and its very doable, and we can say that today, we have gone in the last 10 to 15 years, from half of India being desperately poor to only a quarter of India being desperately poor, meaning on US$1 a day income. On this measure, in the next 10 to 15 years, we should be able to bring back down to single digits. That means from today's quarter of Indians being desperately poor, it should come down to 10 percent or less. And if we focus on that, it will be good that we will able to achieve a lot of the other peripheral goals that we are all interested in. For instance, we cannot increase without getting political figure much lower. Similarly, when we say that poverty level must go down, it happening, its an ongoing process, we just have to sustain it this program. Then the size of the middle class will be even bigger. We get inclusiveness of people that have not been participating in these success stories. But that is beginning to change. To give you an example, I come from Orissa, which has traditionally been the poorest state. But in the last few years because of the decentralization of our economies, because of changing economic policies and greater freedoms, investment destinations for the country, a population of 40 million people have been left out the Indian success story. Today, they have become part and parcel of the success story. And this means, as we continue to grow, and if we can sustain double digit growth, this will happen all around the country not just in the prosperous urban areas. And that is my vision.

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Personal Plofile
Manvendra Singh Manvendra Singh,
Member of the Lok Sabha (Lower House) from the BJP party, representing the state of Rajasthan. A journalist by profession, Mr. Singh joined politics in 1999. He is a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, Industry and member of the Parliament Local Area Development Scheme Committee.
Sachin Pilot Sachin Pilot,
Member of the Lok Sabha, from the Congress Party, representing the state of Rajasthan. He began his political career after getting his MBA degree from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania in the United States in 2002. Two years later, he was elected to the Lok Sabha, where at the age of 26, he was the youngest MP in the country. He is a member of parliament's Standing Committee on Home Affairs and of the consultative committee in the ministry of Civil Aviation.
B.J. Panda B.J. Panda,
Member of the Raja Sabha (Upper House), from the BJD Party, representing the state of Orissa. He is an industrialist-turned-politician and holds a dual degree in engineering, and in management in communications from the Michigan Technological University in the United States. He recently launched his own website to reach out to the people -- the first every by any politician in his largely tribal state of Orissa.
Yuli Ismartono Yuli Ismartono, [Interviewer]
Yuli Ismartono is an executive editor at Tempo, Indonesia's foremost weekly news magazine. Ms. Ismartono, who holds degrees in political science and journalism, has been with Tempo for 15 years, mostly assigned to covering events around the Asia region and interviewing national leaders - such as former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, former South Korean president Kim Dae Jung,Cambodia's King Sihanouk and prime minister Hun Sen, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and other newsmakers. She is currently in charge of Tempo's English language edition and managing editor of AsiaViews, an online and hardcopy magazine featuring news and commentaries from the Asia region, of which Tempo is a member and coordinator of the media group that publishes it.
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