‘Too much bureaucracy’, Chidambaram returns jibe on Amitabh Kant’s "too much democracy" comment

Seemingly returning a jibe made by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on “too much democracy”, Congress leader P Chidambaram on December 11 tweeted “there is too much bureaucracy.”

"There is too much democracy, laments a senior bureaucrat. There is too much bureaucracy, says an anguished democrat," he said. The tweet followed another one, where Chidambaram said: “The foundation for a new Parliament building was laid on the ruins of a liberal democracy.”

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on December 8 it is difficult to carry out tough reforms in India as there is "too much of democracy", and emphasised that more reforms need to be done to make the country competitive.

"Tough reforms are very difficult in the Indian context, we have too much democracy...You need political will to carry out these reforms (mining, coal, labour, agriculture) and many more reforms still need to be done. It is not easy to compete against China without hard reforms," Kant said.