With the world applauding Chinese economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday contrasted it with India's growth which has been achieved in a democratic society and said he would stick to the Indian path.
"No doubt Chinese growth performance is superior to India's growth performance. But I always believe that there are other values which are important than the growth of GDP -- respect for fundamental human rights, respect for rule of law, respect for multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious rights," he said during an interaction at the elite US Council for Foreign Relations in Washington.
India's growth rate, which slowed down to 6.5 per cent this fiscal because of global financial meltdown, is expected to get back to around 9 per cent within two years.
The GDP of China, the world's third largest economy, witnessed a 9 per cent growth in 2008.
In the first nine months of the current fiscal, its GDP grew by 7.7 per cent.
"There are several dimensions to human freedom which are not always caught by the numbers with regard to the GDP. So I do believe that even though Indian performance with regard to GDP might not be as good as the Chinese, certainly I would not like to choose the Chinese path. I would like to stick to Indian path," Singh, who is in Washington, on a four-day state visit, said explaining why Indian model of economic reform was preferable.
The prime minister said India might seem to be indecisive at times, but 'once democracy decides on the basis of wide-ranging consensus, any reforms that are undertaken will be far more durable, far more effective than the reforms introduced by the writ of ruling group in a non-democratic set-up.'
Earlier, Singh told CNN in an interview that development in India cannot be a carbon copy of what happens in China.
Asked about China's high growth and eye-popping infrastructure development speed, he said, "Well, I have no hesitation in saying that I think development in India cannot be a carbon copy of what happens in China. And the Chinese system is very different."
