US Ambassador Eric Garcetti said he has been impressed with certain things Indians “do that are better than” Americans.
US Ambassador Eric Garcetti hailed the democracy in India at an event on Friday and said he was confident that “10 years from now India is going to be a vibrant democracy as it is today in terms of free and fair elections”. He added, “They [Indians] like us more than we [Americans] like ourselves.”Speaking at an event organised in Washington by the Council on Foreign Relations, Garcetti said he has been “impressed with certain things they [Indians] do that are better than us [Americans].”He said that during election times in India, there are people who check trucks to make sure that nobody has cash going around. “There’s probably walk-in money, as they call it in some cities here in the United States, Philadelphia, that’s like a tradition where cash kind of gets you votes and things like that. So, I’ve been impressed with certain things they do that are better than us,” the US diplomat was quoted by PTI as saying.
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When asked about the status of democracy in India, Garcetti said, “Again there’s things that probably are worse and there’s things that are better. They have a law, you can’t go more than two kilometers to vote. So there”ll be one guy who lives in the mountains as a monk (at) someplace. They will walk for two days to bring the voting machine, execute the vote.”
He, however, added there are things that “we keep our eyes on. And I just disagree that we don’t speak out about them.”
“You have a lot of leaders there who have come worked, been educated here, have an affinity. There’s a huge positive polling of Americans. I told the president before the state visit that Americans poll better in India than Americans do in America. They like us more than we like ourselves. That’s rare in the world today,” Garcetti said, adding that Poland is the only other country that comes close.
“This is a huge advantage for the US,” he said. He added, “…If you look at history in India, there’s not been some golden era where everybody’s rights have been respected.
“America’s role is to stand up for the principles and the values that we have, to never retreat from those and talk about them. But is the relationship only that and those points of conflict? Absolutely not. It would be bad diplomacy, it would be bad policy. But in my heart, 100 percent, I believe, not only will this still continue to be one of the world’s most vibrant democracies,” Garcetti said.