Elite being discredited globally: Montek Singh Ahluwalia

In an advice to students, former deputy chairman of Planning Commission of India Montek Singh Ahluwalia emphasised inclusiveness and respect for diversity, as way out of what he called a “global phenomenon” of elite being discredited.

Ahluwalia, the last serving deputy chairman of now defunct Planning Commission, said, “Globally the elite is being increasingly discredited. Because I think people are increasingly getting the feeling that elitism doesn’t do enough for those who don’t have the same advantages.”

“It is important to keep in mind that a successful society doesn’t really become a whole society, unless everybody feels that there is something in it for them,” Ahluwalia, said in an address to the outgoing students of, what he called an “elite” Bishop Cotton Boys’ School.

“From a cultural point of view, from a regional point of view, diversity is very important,” he added. He also said that due to slow growth rate of the population, complemented by the increased rate of GDP growth in the past decade, the per capita income is expected to grow five times faster than it used to grow in post-independence days. “So for your generation, what we saw as a structural change in 45 years, you are going to see in nine years. That is going to have a tremendous impact in your lives,” he told the young graduates.
 DH News Service