The Real Enemies Of Indian Society

LK Advani, prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, speaking in Bhopal yesterday, has reiterated his promise to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya if voted to power.

Note how the basic idea is collectivist: that this temple will “belong” to all Hindoos.

Just as Nehru called his steel plants “temples of modern India.”

But do Nehru’s steel plants belong to all Indians? Or are they very much the “private property” of politicians and bureaucrats who “claim to represent the public”?

In precisely the same way, this Ram temple will be the private property of certain people who claim to represent all Hindoos.

The prolonged “dispute” over some land in Ayodhya is therefore a no-brainer. If we understand that collective property is a hoax, and all property is very much private, then the solution is to auction the site. Whoever wants this property will have to bid for it in open competition, and if he wins, it will be his. I had written so in an article published in the ToI many years back.

Thus, Advani is a “pseudo-communist.”

And there is zero substance in the debate between the Congress and the BJP.

Indeed, the similarities between these two parties is striking:

Both parties point to a certain section of the people as the “enemy” and seek, through State politics, to appropriate their properties. In the case of the Congress, the enemy is the capitalist, whose properties were nationalized. In the case of the BJP, the enemies are those of other faiths. Both parties believe in “collective property.” Both parties are essentially collectivist.

Once again, this is a no-brainer to those who champion individualism – the credo of the classical liberal / libertarian. According to this philosophy, property is private, and the rights of every individual must be respected. Muslims and Christians are individuals, they are bonafide citizens, and their individual rights to life and property must be upheld under the Rule of Law. Ditto for the capitalist.

Note how Principles matter. Once the Principle of Property is jettisoned, all hell breaks loose.

India is Hell only because our politics is devoid of Principles.

Indeed, under the Rule of Law, there is no “enemy” other than the outlaw. In a market order, an open catallaxy, all “friendly strangers” are welcome. Not only that, all these friendly strangers are also entitled to legal protection of their lives, properties and liberties – as in the case of tourists.

It is only because Indian politics identifies law-abiding citizens as the “enemy” that actual Outlaws have taken over The State. Do read another old article of mine, “The Real Outlaws,” an article inspired by a film on the Gujarat pogroms against law-abiding Muslims.

As I have been consistently pointing out, the debate between the “secular” and the “communal” is a diversionary tactic of The Socialist State. In essence, both are the same, just that one is a darker shade of black.

The only real debate is between Socialism and Capitalism. This is the debate over the Governing Principle: that is, private property and individualism versus collective property and collectivism.

It is India’s great loss that this debate is debarred from electoral politics.

So Think. Don’t vote. Protest.