A Happy Monday For Liberalism

As West Bengal moves away from Communist thinking, and the Communist Party there is in terminal decline after an uninterrupted reign of over 30 years, it is the Trinamool Congress, a breakaway faction of the Grand Old Party, that is filling up the vacuum. The Trinamool is an important ally of the present government.

However, the Trinamool has recently been seen to be too “socialist” [from now on we shall call such ideas “étatist”]. Mamata Banerjee, their chief, now railway minister, has naturally opposed privatization of State “enterprise” – another fatal misnomer. Many commentators who were happy that The Left were out of the government noted that nothing much had changed with the new dispensation because the Trinamool (and the DMK) seemed more étatist than The Left – who are in terminal decline, thank God.

However, this time around, there is a conflict between the Trinamool and the government that promises to yield fruitful results for those who believe in the inviolability of Private Property: the conflict is over amendments to the “land acquisition legislation.” The new bill allows The State to help private businessmen buy land for their projects, but with a proviso: the private party must buy 70 per cent of the land on his own; The State will assist in the delivery of the properties of the balance 30 per cent, the “holdouts.”

Trinamool is saying nothing doing: the private party must buy all the land he needs on his own, without any support from The State – support, that is, based on the Misuse of Force.

In its lead editorial today, the ToI has labeled the Trinamool stand “populist.” They say the Trinamool is being too “idealistic.” The editors have called upon the party leadership to shun populism and be “realistic.”

In my view, the editors of the ToI are failing to stand up to their professed “liberal” philosophy. This political philosophy, the very antithesis of communism, is based solidly on the bedrock of Private Property. It is therefore a peculiar debate we are witnessing: a party of étatists standing firm by Property; and a “liberal” newspaper arguing the opposite.

Deep down, I do believe that the editors of the ToI are misreading the real “politics” that is occurring in rural India, especially West Bengal, where, after the fiasco over Singur and Nandigram, the average peasant has become firmly convinced of his rights to the ownership of his own land; and further, that The State has no business depriving him of this natural right. Trinamool’s Banerjee is not being “populist” – which is Chacha Manmohan with his NREGA and cheap rice programmes; rather, she is doing what all good politicians must: she is faithfully mirroring the opinion of her constituents.

I am happy at this outcome. It is good for Indian politics. It is good for Bengal. It is good that our long dispossessed masses are waking up to their rights to Property – something the “socialist” Constitution of India does not guarantee.

It means that Liberalism is winning.