Funny piece of news in which Chacha Manmohan is quoted as saying that Rahul “has all the qualities of a PM”, while also hinting that he would like to hand over charge to someone younger mid-way through his next term – that is, of course, if he gets one. Seems like the bookies are betting on him.
This portion is hilarious:
Asked if he had any regrets about things he couldn't do in his first term, which he would like to do in his second term, “I’d like to work on agriculture, education and rural health," he replied.
The people are crying out for bijli, sadak and paani. Chacha ignores all three.
The future of India must be urban. But Chacha's mind inhabits rural India.
Free trade, coastal cities, satellite towns, new hill stations – none of these matter to Chacha.
Chacha has no “dream to sell" – except Rahul Gandhi.
The Royal Family is the Beginning and the End of his Palace Politics.
Here is Tavleen Singh today on why Indira Gandhi was the “worst leader” that India ever had.
And here is me in an old ToI piece pointing out that Jawaharlal Nehru was “pure evil.”
Chacha seems to have bought property in a condemned building.
There is a specific reason why this country is such a mess – it is the Congress, and their phony ideology.
Today, all that the Congress is capable of saying is that the BJP is worse.
And this is the precise point I am making: that there must be something very wrong with India’s “political organizations” if the content of their politics is so bad.
What can the Congress be but a closed and rigid hierarchy?
What can the BJP be but an organization committed to a patently communal agenda?
And yes, I said that we need a new politics. This is politics as the “public actions of free people” and has nothing to do with political organization, which can always come later. This free politics of individuals guided by an overall ideology must precede political organization.
Today, we are fortunate to also have Meghnad Desai the Labour peer calling for a new politics. Note that the examples he gives of his politics for the Labour party are all about party politics, or political organization. He concludes that if we seriously start on the road of new politics, we will succeed by 2025.
But think about it: Politics is NOT political organization.
I am calling for a new libertarian politics in India, unrelated to either Party or State, in the schools and colleges, in the media, and on the streets – on T-shirts.
That’s the place to begin.
Push The Tempo!
Watch the video for inspiration.
Sauvik, sometimes I fail to understand where you draw a line between partially conceding to the reality of the situation, and holding a ideologically pure line on libertarianism.
ReplyDeleteYou say "The people are crying out for bijli, sadak, and paani." This sounds like a snivelling socialist cry. If people want bijli, sadak, and paani, is it the government's job to give it to them? No, the government's job is simply to give people complete freedom to get their own. So if chacha would have said "bijli, sadak, and paani", he would STILL have been wrong. No?
Also, while you constantly beat around libertarian ideas, you also seem to have a staunch vision of what the future, free, India will look like - highly urban and with motoraable roads running in its veins. Why so? Why not give liberty and let things take whatever form they will?
To Etlamatey's points:
ReplyDeleteI have often pointed out that bijli, sadak and paani are all government monopolies. But surely my pointing them out is not a "snivelling socialist cry." The Great Socialist Of The Eternal Darkness sees his future term occupied by matters relating to "agriculture, education and rural health": this is the "snivelling socialist cry." I have quoted a popular slogan (not a political slogan) that must have spontaneously emerged among vast numbers of people to echo a sentiment they all held.
["bijli, sadak aur paani" translates to electricity, roads and water.]
About the future: Exact praxeological laws allow us to make "qualitative" or "pattern" predictions about the future. These are very different from the "quantitative predictions" Chacha makes - like "9 per cent growth."
Take your pick: Which kind of predictions do you want to rely on? After all, science is only at the service of man. He must choose his science.
aah.. now this post, i like. I have always maintained that the COngress causes deep rifts that NEVER go away... they made a mess of Kashmir, of Sri Lanka, of Paksitan and of internal security situation.. if there is one place where the only merit is sycophancy, it is the COngress.. i love ur post!
ReplyDeleteSauvik,
ReplyDelete"Asked if he had any regrets about things he couldn't do in his first term, which he would like to do in his second term, “I’d like to work on agriculture, education and rural health," he replied.
The people are crying out for bijli, sadak and paani. Chacha ignores all three.
The future of India must be urban. But Chacha's mind inhabits rural India."
Sauvik, the future of India may be urban but the votes today, in this very election, are rural. So, Manmohan stays "on message"; to win the election.