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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
00:00Look, I am at my core a Democrat and I think every point of view has a right to be spoken
00:09and India is not a country that can run well without democratic inter-debates.
00:25Democracy by democracy, I don't mean the western paradigm of democracy because they
00:28call it liberal democracy, where they think that America attacking Libya and to enforce
00:36their version of democracy on it is democracy, that is not democracy.
00:40By democracy, I mean debates between different groups, there are things that I feel very strongly,
00:49but if I lose a debate to someone else in a democratic election then fine, I have to accept
00:55it. That is the Indian way. So, for example, I actually believe that we must have more delegation
01:08of authorities. We must have even the district levels much more powerful. There are many
01:14things like this. Like I think the language movement is actually good. It actually strengthens
01:20democracy in my opinion. Some who agree, some who disagree. What the emergency did is stop
01:26this debate. That is what was core wrong with it. I am not anti-efficiency. But where this
01:38debate stops and that is what the emergency did because you actually just locked up one side.
01:46That is what was unfortunate. And that's a lesson we must learn. And not so much about blaming
01:51people today for what may have happened 50 years ago. That I think is not helpful. But we must never
01:59allow that to happen again. Because the kind of people we are, we are basically an argumentative people.
02:08And if we don't allow these debates to happen, that's when we end up having chaos in our country.
02:12Okay. But I also believe that once you've lost a debate, then you have to accept it. It's like,
02:22it can't be that I lost the election, so then I think the election itself is unfair. No,
02:27that is not fair. You know, convince the people once again. Or I fought on a policy and I lost the
02:35election, then I'll go to the Supreme Court and get that policy enforced. That is not good.
02:39Right? It has to be within the debating space. If you notice, even in religion, in our traditional way,
02:47our kings never enforced a religion. I am talking about Indian kings, not the invaders. They never
02:51enforced a religion. People would debate and they would decide, what do you want to do? That is the
02:57Indian way. Shastrarth is the Indian way. Vada is the Indian way. The emergency went against that.
03:03So it's not just about morality. It is bad for our country. Our country cannot run that way. Our country
03:11runs on debates. Our country is where even gods would not enforce their will. Lord Krishna also did not
03:21enforce. Shastrarth is happening and he would say, this is my view. He told Arjun also on the 18th Adhyaya,
03:31I've given you knowledge. But up to you now, you decide. Right? This is our way. Emergency went against
03:38our fundamental way of thinking and living. We should never allow that to happen again.

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