Today, the ToI has reported on Lalgarh, and this is big news: The rebels held and armed rally yesterday. Thousands were in attendance.
Now, this is a purely “government” problem. It has nothing to do with occupying the “commanding heights of the economy” – and it is here, on basic issues of civil government, that our The State is clueless.
Not that they are doing too well on the economic front either: the news is that Air India is 16,000 crore rupees in debt (100 crores is a billion). Of this, 11,000 crores is “high cost debt.” The managing director of Air India told the press that he plans to turn the company around in 3 years, mainly by entering the low cost domestic aviation market.
This is totally unethical. The government cannot enter into “competition” with the citizenry, who are operating many private low cost airlines. This cannot be the “Role of the State.” And anyway, no one can compete with an entity that can accumulate unlimited losses and still operate. It is like a loss making State bus company “competing” with private bus operators (read earlier post).
Thus, whether on matters related to the nitty gritty of civil government – like maintaining the peace or keeping land records – or on economic issues, we are forced to conclude that our socialist Chacha Manmohan State is clueless. This is stark evidence of the deep errors in socialist thinking.
And they want to teach.
By force!
Where are we headed?
Thanks to LRC, here is a cartoon-based essay on the differences between the pessimism of Aldous Huxley and that of George Orwell. Both saw doomsday ahead – but there were vital differences, which this very well illustrated essay brings out.
And then you decide: Where are we headed? Which doomsday are we looking at?
I am not really worried about Huxley's pessimism as much as Orwell's. If one pinpoints,they can usually find useless things in an array of choices( in the cartoon, it's the biggest loser). The problem is when there are no choices. Like the Doordarshan in the 80's. The state owned media televising SAARC conferences. I admit to the fact that the modern day television is junk for the most part -- but it's up to us to make sense of what is important to us. And it's much better than the big brother giving us "World of Sport", which included Kabaddi and Koko played in rural Bihar.
ReplyDelete