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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Don’t trade votes for bread. Democracy and growth should go hand in hand: MR Masani

In 1977, Constituent Assembly member MR Masani wrote about how only governments vulnerable to being voted out by the electorate will genuinely prioritise civic needs.

“IS it better to have elections now or a stable economy?” we are asked these days.

When some of us joined Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and B. R. Ambedkar in framing the Constitution of the Republic, we thought we had answered that question by enacting a Constitution which assured both elections and economic stability. In fact, we enjoyed both for twenty-five years from 26th January 1950 when our Republic was established.

Now, stability is not necessarily a good thing. Stability can be good or bad—it can be at a high level of freedom or a low level of slavery. It can be the stability of prosperity or the stability of poverty. So what is obviously wanted is economic progress and prosperity along with stability.

It is not a new question that is being put to us. The Communists and Fascists have posed this question for a long time to justify their dictatorship. “Do you want bread or freedom?” is the way Stalin, then Hitler and then Mao posed this question.

Lenin and Trotsky said to the Russian people: “Just endure our dictatorship for ten years, put up with all the hardships, tighten your belts, and then what will happen? The millennium will arise. The State will wither away; the land will flow with milk and........

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