“Tough reforms are very difficult in the Indian context, we have too much of democracy...You needed political will to carry out these reforms (mining, coal, labour, agriculture) and many more reforms still need to be done,” Amitabh Kant said.
UK as an example, tories have gutted what democracy was there, now you can't swim in the water and go to prison for 10 years if you're deemed a nuisance
This is just "The best government is a benevolent autocracy" without the second half, which is "the next best government is democracy". And the unsaid part of the saying is "The worst government is a malicious autocracy", which is an eventual certainty.
Democracy has it's problems, but it's better than anything else we can realistically implement.
A little context, he is the previous CEO of NITI Aayog, the "company" in question.
Niti aayog is a government owned think tank/ company whose purpose it is to do bring and do feasibility studies of possible government policies. The person is a civil servant and this was his previous job.
The company isn't a multi-billion dollar company, it's basically the government, that too under the bureaucratic wing of the government.
He's saying the thought he was paid to think in the tank and testing the reaction. It could also be a broader message to ask for support from other donors.
Folks don't pay attention to what oligarchs do or they think it is non-siniater in its intent. Oligarchs, the politically influential rich folks will continue to linger in the spaces where corrupt politics fester. They make friends with lawmakers and then spend a lot of time with them to plant those seeds of corruption and "reform".
If the poor spent time with politicians like the rich do, laws would be more fair to society as a whole.
The article you linked actually confirms it isnt out of context. Its just a politician lying to save face.
From the article:
Kant’s statements and the context can be heard in the full video. It is not clear what prompted the publications to delete their stories or change the headlines when a video of the interview is available and what he said was quoted verbatim.
There is a tiny, tiny kernel of truth in that statement. And by in large, regardless of political beliefs, most people want a strong central government applying top down solutions to their problems. (Which can have it's own set of unintended issues)
An example might be single payer health care. A majority of voters would really like it. But it's one thing to say that and get it passed. But it's another whole ball of worms to create the nuts and bolts of such a system. Everyone has their own ideas about how it should work. And until you can get everyone to agree on the nuts and bolts in a democracy there will be difficulties. So unless you have the outright power, (something not so "democratic"), to say "This is how we are going to do it", you are going to probably end up with a gridlocked discussion and no healthcare. And if someone does have that power to force the answer - even it you don't like it - your democracy isn't what you think it is.