Today is Independence Day – and the power failed this morning.
Indeed, these 61 years have been nothing but a history of power failure: that is, the failure of centralized political power to achieve all that it was set up to achieve. Vast masses remain poor; all the cities and towns have crumbled. The State possesses no "functional legitimacy": it does not perform any of its valid functions well. All it attempts is "clientelistic legitimacy" – as it caters to the interests of various client groups.
It therefore seems fitting that, on this auspicious day, this clientelistic State should hike the salaries of its 5 million staff by 40 per cent or more. This will bust the treasury. As the lead editorial in The Economic Times points out, this "bonanza for baboos" is not in the public interest. But then, who ever said that this State ever considered the larger interest. Every action of theirs is directed at particular interests alone.
These 61 years have been a history of false freedom. We are not free, nor have we ever been so. And certainly not in the economic sense. We are all tied down by a host of restrictions on anything and everything. If we desire to be free, we must get rid of all these restrictive rules and repressive legislations.
India has tremendous potential. We have everything going for us. It is The State that is keeping us down with its "policies."
If we institute free trade unilaterally, if we rebuild our cities and towns, if we allow each citizen the freedom to trade goods and services voluntarily, if we bestow clear titles to properties that people own and if we fix our rapidly depreciating currency, every Indian will get a chance at economic success.
In brief: if we do away with this Socialist State altogether.
That will be true "independence."
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