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  • 6/26/2025
Mumbai: In an exclusive interview with author Amish Tripathi, where he reflected on India's Emergency, emphasizing the importance of democratic debates and dissenting voices. He said, “India is not a country that can run well without democratic inter-debates. Democracy by democracy, I don't mean the Western paradigm of democracy. These are things that I feel very strongly about. But if I lose a debate to someone else in a democratic election, then fine, I have to accept it. That is the Indian way. So, for example, you know, I believe that we need to have more delegation of authority.”

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Transcript
00:00Since you are a writer, I need to understand from your perspective, your opinion on the 50
00:07years of emergence. Look, I am at my core a Democrat, right? And I think every point of
00:15view has a right to be spoken and India is not a country that can run well without
00:23democratic inter-debates. Democracy, by democracy I don't mean the western paradigm of democracy.
00:37How can you elaborate this western paradigm? Because they call it liberal democracy,
00:42where they think that America attacking Libya and to enforce their version of democracy on it is
00:50democracy. That is not democracy, right? By democracy I mean debates between different groups.
00:56There are things that I feel very strongly but if I lose a debate to someone else
01:05in a democratic election then fine I have to accept it. That is the Indian way, right?
01:09So, for example, you know, I actually believe that we must have more delegation of authorities. We
01:21must have even the district levels much more powerful. There are many things like this. Like
01:27I think the language movement is actually good. It actually strengthens democracy in my opinion, right?
01:35Some who agree, some who disagree. What the emergency did is stop this debate. That is what was core
01:41wrong with it, right? I am not anti-efficiency, but where this debate stops and that's what the emergency
01:53did because you actually just locked up one side, right? That is what was unfortunate and that's the
02:00lesson we must learn. And not so much about blaming people today for what may have happened 50 years
02:06ago. That I think is not helpful. But we must never allow that to happen again, right? Because the kind
02:14of people we are, we are basically an argumentative people. And if we don't allow these debates to happen,
02:22that's when we end up having chaos in our country. But I also believe that once you've lost a debate,
02:29then you have to accept it. It's like, it can't be that I lost the election, so then I think the
02:37election itself is unfair. No, that is not fair. You know, convince the people once again. Or
02:44I fought on a policy and I lost the election, then I'll go to the Supreme Court and get that policy
02:50enforced. That is not good. Right? It has to be within the debating space. If you notice,
02:55even in religion, in our traditional way, our kings never enforced a religion. I am talking about
03:01Indian kings, not the invaders. They never enforced a religion. People would debate and they would
03:05decide what to do. That is the Indian way. Shastrartha is the Indian way. Vada is the Indian way.
03:13The emergency went against that. So it's not just about morality. It is bad for our country. Our country
03:21cannot run that way. Our country runs on debates. Our country is where even gods would not enforce their
03:30will. Lord Krishna also did not enforce. Shastrar is happening and he would say,
03:36this is my view. He told Arjun also on the 18th Adiyah, I've given you knowledge.
03:45But up to you now, you decide. Right? This is our way. Emergency went against our fundamental way
03:52of thinking and living. We should never allow that to happen again.

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