As a citizen of modern China, I was excited to join the BBC India Election Train. How does such a vast country keep its election process on track? Like China, India is more than a nation — it is a rich stew of people, politics and agendas; many countries in one — balancing diversity and unity along the tightrope of history. But India and China are meeting this challenge in very different ways.
Last week in Mumbai, people in one of the city’s slums told me that they would all vote the next day, in the hope that their living conditions might soon be improved. It seems to be the same story among all the communities I have met so far; a continuing optimism — sometimes against all odds — that their political choices can better their lives. Indians to whom I have spoken are proud of their democracy, but they also tend to temper this with realism. Corruption, poverty and the city-country divide remain serious issues. The current government faces criticism for its perceived failure to deliver on its promises.
I am struck here not just by political differences but by the sense that India and China are on the same track economically, albeit at different speeds. India feels a little like China did in the 1970s; the model of special economic zones came, of course, from Deng Xiao Ping. In Hyderabad, the construction sites all along the roads and the bright neon lights in the newly developed area reminded me of Shenzhen — a zone that went from a fishing village to workshop of the world within a single generation.
In Hyderabad, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu acknowledged that China had made faster economic progress than India. He added, perhaps with a sense of irony, that China’s policy makers were not hampered by democratic accountability. If you upset your constituents in India you may be out at the next polls. Not only that, you are also accountable to a robust and independent media. No such brakes exist on the train of Chinese political will. China, of course, has no free election; while politicians in India must be cautious when making decisions, because any policy mistake would lead to failure at the subsequent polls.
So, for me it is easy to see why Indians are proud of their colossal democracy. Compared to China, the free press is a vortex of ideas, attacks and debate. Rural workers are free to move to any city they like and settle down. These seemingly simple things represent a level of personal freedom still largely unknown in China. Slum-dwellers in India’s cities may suffer from their low pay and living conditions, but the government does not send them back home if they don’t find work.
The other day we stopped at a station near the naval base of Visakhapatnam. An electronics engineer I met there told me this was the cleanest and fairest election ever in Indian history. And then he added that India should adopt the Chinese model of efficient economic reform.
India may want to emulate China — but there is more than one path to any destination.
(The writer is with the BBC World Service, Chinese Service)
