India 'role model' for democracy in Asia despite odds: Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi

Tokyo: Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi on Tuesday said India has emerged as a role model for democracy and development in Asia despite odds stacked against it.

Delivering a keynote address on Indian Democracy at the United Nations University (UNU) here, the four-term Member of Parliament and noted jurist Singhvi said that true development begins not with GDP but with dignity and it cannot be called growth if it leaves behind the weakest.

Singhvi offered a powerful articulation of India’s democratic journey, highlighting its status as the world’s largest and most enduring democracy among post-imperial nations.

Contrasting India’s vibrant democracy with the constitutional challenges faced by several nations in Africa, Australasia, and South America, he emphasised India's resilience, pluralism, and the structural strength of its institutions.

Singhvi, who was invited as the chief guest, addressed a distinguished gathering in the session moderated by UNU Rector Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg and fellow at both Wilson College and St John's College, Cambridge.

The United Nations University, headquartered in Tokyo and spanning multiple global campuses, has campuses in 13 countries across the globe.

“There can be no doubt that India has been a role model for democracy and development in Asia. And that too with odds humongously, deeply stacked against it.

“It is believed that true development begins not with GDP but with dignity. Its social commitment proceeds on the premise that a bridge without equity is a road to nowhere. It cannot be called growth if it leaves behind the weakest. Digital India believes in dialogue among its stakeholders and dialogue without outsiders and other countries,” Singhvi said in his address.

The event was attended by a diverse slice of Tokyo society, including academics, diplomats, politicians, administrators / bureaucrats and senior members of the civil society.

Singhvi's lecture was an engagement that underscored India's democratic ethos on a prestigious global stage.