This should have been the headline of this elaborate report on Chattisgarh, where Naxalism is rife, from the Hindustan Times this morning. Here is an extract:
A senior police officer in the district had little idea how his men might distinguish between a militant and an innocent villager on the ground. In a conversation in his office, interrupted every minute by calls as he deployed troops in the forests, he said: “Most tribals are uncivilised savages. They are all idiots.”
Chhattisgarh’s police chief, Vishwa Ranjan, shrugs: “In any war, there is bound to be collateral damage.”
The report tells of how tribal property is insecure – entire villages are wiped out routinely; and there is an interesting bit on how land is being “acquired” by our The State to hand over to the Tatas for setting up a steel plant.
Actually, I do believe that it is the Chattisgarh administration who are a bunch of idiots. They have disregarded all the basic principles of civil government – which is why the situation on the ground is described by their police chief as “war.”
The opposite of war is Peace – which means The Market, voluntary exchanges, and cities and modernization: as in the story of Shillong and British rule over the north-east, which commenced only in the 1850s. The country’s only Bob Dylan fest is held in Shillong, and it has been held there annually for decades now. Dylan is not headbanger stuff; his lyrics have great cerebral appeal.
Uncivilised savages, indeed.
Scene 2: The Roads of India, built by our The State and policed by their The Cops.
A WHO report says that India tops the world in road deaths – 13 every hour. 1,25,000 die every year, over 350 a day. An expert says the figure could be considerably higher, for many deaths go unreported; also, many people die days or even weeks after the accident and are not counted. Of this total, 24,000 deaths are of truckers. Next come people on two-wheelers.
The expert, Rohit Baluja, says:
Idiots?
Scene 3: Government-issued fiat paper currency
Mint has stuck its neck out today and in an editorial which says that the recession is not over yet, goes further in congratulating governments and central bankers the world over for vastly increasing the money supply since the recession hit. The editors await the boost in consumer and corporate spending that Keynesian theory predicts. They say it is yet to happen.
Of course, in a paper, different editors are thinking different things – and so it was heartening to read a column in Mint's inner pages explaining the basic tenets of Austrian economics for the lay reader. The explanation leaves much to be desired – but, that said, it was heartening to see that more and more people are getting interested in Austrian ideas. In this column, the manner in which Austrians look at inflation is shown to be totally different from mainstream teachings – and this means that their theories of business cycles must differ as well.
Looking only at the data of money supply increases and the surge in government deficits, Austrians would say that the worst is yet to come. If it was so easy to create prosperity by printing money, poverty would have been wiped out in India ages ago.
To conclude: The 3 scenes presented today – all from the morning papers – show contrasting views of the Role of The State. In Chattisgarh we found it clueless. On road safety we found them equally clueless. Finally, we looked at their idea of money – equally clueless.
Anyway, I have for long been wanting to do some “body art.” In Goa, I much admired other people’s tattoos. I have now decided on what I will do. I am going to wear a gold front tooth.
Seeing me smile, I hope everyone will get my drift.
No comments:
Post a Comment