Manmohan has reassured the bureaucracy and the armed forces that they will be “well-rewarded” – referring to the 6th Pay Commission and the pay hikes that will inevitably follow.
We have already discussed the “misproductive” civilian bureaucracy.
Let us now turn to the “unproductive” armed forces.
When the army recruits a strapping young lad from a remote village, they must pay him more than what he was earning earlier – or he would never join.
However, as soon as the new recruit signs up, the nation suffers these three major economic losses:
1. The recruit has to stop producing whatever he was producing; say, a few quintals of potatoes from his patch of land. These potatoes are no longer available for the consumption of the citizenry. This is an economic loss for society.
2. The recruit is now paid through taxation – which is coerced out of the productive members of society, causing major economic losses to them.
3. The recruit “works” year after year on a parade ground – he is himself “unproductive”. This is a loss as well. Tolstoy described the life of a Russian army officer as one spent in “commanded idleness”.
In “theory” – in the political science classrooms – it may never be challenged that a nation can do without a “national defence”. But the enormous social cost of a standing army must also be drilled into the heads of the students, who will become voters soon.
Here, outside the classroom, let us instead look at the “practice”.
We were horrified at the high security for the Olympic torch run in Delhi. Now think of Srinagar, a little city with 500,000 armed soldiers in permanent deployment.
As an extremely articulate Kashmiri said on prime-time television the other day, “Your Indian army is closely associated with human rights violations in Kashmir.”
I spoke at some colleges in Srinagar some years ago, and a principal told me the story of how one of his best students just “disappeared”.
My own impression of our army in Srinagar was that it is an army of occupation: something to be ashamed of in a supposedly free democracy.
Then there is Manipur. A woman has been on hunger strike for 8 years protesting against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that has bequeathed a rough-and-ready martial law to this state – for over 15 years. She is being force fed through the nose for 8 long years now.
These examples of “practice” go against the “theory of national defence”. These are internal wars against our own people.
Recall that armies are “unproductive”. Here, they are also “destructive”. There is no “economy” in either Kashmir or Manipur.
Thus, there are no revenues to fund the state governments: they depend on the central government for handouts. The taxpayer is picking up the tab.
Armies, navies and air forces must be recruited and deployed with eyes on “economy” always.
In India, the political leadership is blind to economics.
This is particularly true of the 25-year-long high-altitude “war” on the Siachen glacier. It has cost the exchequer 3 or 4 crore rupees per day, every day from 1983 (or thereabouts: I visited the war zone in 1984).
Thousands of soldiers have been physically destroyed because of exposure to the extreme weather conditions on Siachen – including one of my very old friends, a tough commando now reduced to a shadow of his former self.
But what is Siachen worth – per acre?
Can the glacier generate revenues from tourism? Will any hotelier buy land there?
Think about that.
And read The Myth of National Defence.
And My 115th Dream.
We have already discussed the “misproductive” civilian bureaucracy.
Let us now turn to the “unproductive” armed forces.
When the army recruits a strapping young lad from a remote village, they must pay him more than what he was earning earlier – or he would never join.
However, as soon as the new recruit signs up, the nation suffers these three major economic losses:
1. The recruit has to stop producing whatever he was producing; say, a few quintals of potatoes from his patch of land. These potatoes are no longer available for the consumption of the citizenry. This is an economic loss for society.
2. The recruit is now paid through taxation – which is coerced out of the productive members of society, causing major economic losses to them.
3. The recruit “works” year after year on a parade ground – he is himself “unproductive”. This is a loss as well. Tolstoy described the life of a Russian army officer as one spent in “commanded idleness”.
In “theory” – in the political science classrooms – it may never be challenged that a nation can do without a “national defence”. But the enormous social cost of a standing army must also be drilled into the heads of the students, who will become voters soon.
Here, outside the classroom, let us instead look at the “practice”.
We were horrified at the high security for the Olympic torch run in Delhi. Now think of Srinagar, a little city with 500,000 armed soldiers in permanent deployment.
As an extremely articulate Kashmiri said on prime-time television the other day, “Your Indian army is closely associated with human rights violations in Kashmir.”
I spoke at some colleges in Srinagar some years ago, and a principal told me the story of how one of his best students just “disappeared”.
My own impression of our army in Srinagar was that it is an army of occupation: something to be ashamed of in a supposedly free democracy.
Then there is Manipur. A woman has been on hunger strike for 8 years protesting against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that has bequeathed a rough-and-ready martial law to this state – for over 15 years. She is being force fed through the nose for 8 long years now.
These examples of “practice” go against the “theory of national defence”. These are internal wars against our own people.
Recall that armies are “unproductive”. Here, they are also “destructive”. There is no “economy” in either Kashmir or Manipur.
Thus, there are no revenues to fund the state governments: they depend on the central government for handouts. The taxpayer is picking up the tab.
Armies, navies and air forces must be recruited and deployed with eyes on “economy” always.
In India, the political leadership is blind to economics.
This is particularly true of the 25-year-long high-altitude “war” on the Siachen glacier. It has cost the exchequer 3 or 4 crore rupees per day, every day from 1983 (or thereabouts: I visited the war zone in 1984).
Thousands of soldiers have been physically destroyed because of exposure to the extreme weather conditions on Siachen – including one of my very old friends, a tough commando now reduced to a shadow of his former self.
But what is Siachen worth – per acre?
Can the glacier generate revenues from tourism? Will any hotelier buy land there?
Think about that.
And read The Myth of National Defence.
And My 115th Dream.
500,000 "soldiers" in Srinagar! That would be half the Indian Army! Perhaps you should learn to distinguish between soldiers (Indian Army) and policemen (BSF, CRPF, ITBP etc). A journalist of your experience should not need to be reminded but, allow me to remind you that while "facts are sacred, comment is free."
ReplyDeleteOf course, there should be no human rights violations, but we must make a distinction between institutionalised HR violations and individual acts of indiscipline -- for which exemplary punishment is awarded very quickly. Cheers!