Full coverage: 95 years of glory

This year marks the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. To mark the event, CCTV's international correspondents have been talking to global leaders and scholars from around the world for their views on the party's role in China's development. Today, we hear from Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

CCTV coorespondent Shweta: Mr. Yechury you have repeatedly spoken about India having three kinds of challenges - its got economic, social and political challenges. You as the Communist Party India Marxist if were to take these challenges, what take away can we take from the CPC?

Yechury: One is that your policy should be people centric, two – it’s not about chasing the mirage of a high growth rate, it’s the question of what’s the actual livelihood and welfare of your people at the bottom. Now these are the takeaways that I think given the demographic dividend that India has, if you are able to do this what I said earlier I said then a new India is in the making and we can realize our potential. So what we have to learn from China is the ability to realize our own potential. China has shown it that with proper policies and proper direction the Chinese people can realize their inherent potential, which they are doing now. They are shocking the world even today with a 6.9% growth rate, which is just a little less than the 7% target that they had. But they are bold enough to say we are moderating our growth, looking inwards into our economy, developing domestic economy and working for the people’s welfare. We require something of that nature that needs to be done. What we are saying is that stop giving concessions to your rich to incentivize growth. The subsidies they gave to the poor they consider a drain on the economy. The subsidies you give to the rich are considered incentives for growth. That is the fallacy and hypocrisy going on today. That needs to end.

Shweta: Combined population of China and India stands at a massive 2.6 billion people. How do you think these two countries could collaborate better for larger prosperity and peace in the world?

Yechury: Before the 20th century nearly 80 percent of the global trade was dominated by India and China. Its only when you had the phase of colonialism and the phase of primitive accumulation that happened because of the western powers coming in when both our countries were enslaved, we for longer than China was, so I mean we have the potential today to regain our dominance in the world. We have the potential, both in terms of economics and in terms of sheer human resources, so the synergy between India and China can be a very powerful stimulus for taking the world in a proper direction and that synergy has to be done.