Countries must respect wishes of people: Desai

Jammu, January 8

Lord Meghnad Desai, an Indian-born British economist and a parliamentarian sitting in the House of Lords, said today that the Britain handled the experiment of nationalities “nicely” and the frequent referendums conducted in Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and the devolution of powers in these countries were its best examples.

He stated this while delivering the first Mufti Muhammad Sayeed memorial lecture on ‘Devolving power: The British experience’ at General Zorawar Singh Auditorium at Jammu University on the occasion of Mufti Muhammad Sayeed Commemoration Day.

He said similar experiments were conducted in other places like Catalonia, but Spain had not tried the British way as its constitution did not allow such devolution.

“Great Britian has a highly centralised polity. The United Kingdom has four regions, four nationalities, four nations and very proudly we say there is London, Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh. These four capitals in the UK have all sorts of devolved power and independence … it is a cultural transformation,” Desai said.

He further maintained, “Each political party has some people who favour devolution of powers and others who don’t and parties had discussions over it. There were street protests and agitations, but in the end, a reasonable argument prevailed that ultimately we have to respect the wishes of people.”

Desai said, “The way the wishes of the people are checked has to be carefully calibrated, so that the decisions are not driven by a fanatical minority….all these things have been nicely handled in Britian.”

“Another experiment is going on in Catalonia in Spain. People of Catalonia want independence from Spain, and Spanish constitution doesn’t allow this. They have not tried the British way. I hope in European countries, where such regional movements are taking place, some sense prevails. Whatever you decide, you have to consult the people carefully. Make sure you are giving the genuine opinions of the majority, while not forgetting the rights of minorities at the same time. It’s a very tricky situation.” — TNS