Manmohan Singh Quotations | Page 3

Democracy is good for everybody.

Democracy is good for world peace.

Democracies don't go to war.

India is a functioning democracy - despite its extreme poverty, India has stayed the course.

China is not I think a country which does not regulate, but there is a difference between the Chinese system and the Indian system.

If certain facilities, local facilities have to be arranged, the local authorities have to come. And that makes the Indian system slow moving, Indian administrative system slow moving.

There may be a difference of the pace at which India moves, but there should be no doubt whatsoever about the direction in which India is going to move in years to come.

When I became finance minister in 1991, I discovered that the wealth tax rates income - there was taxation on wealth. It was so atrocious and so high that actually nobody could accumulate money in an honest way. I removed that tax, and the result was that Indian companies for the first time acquired an incentive to grow big, to grow rich.

I think whatever I've done, I hope I've earned a footnote in India's long and tortuous history.

I pray for that moment in which I think we can claim to the world that we are now in a different, new era of Indo-American relationship of trust, of working together, partnership strengthened both by our commitment to common values, and also the identity of interests.