As a political economist, it pains me greatly to read of an entire, extremely large, province shutting down: all shops, banks, offices, highways – everything shut.
Imagine the loss of business. Imagine the plight of poor people who earn daily wages and spend these wages on their daily needs. Imagine the huge amount of human misery.
What is also astounding is that this shutting down of the entire province through the illegal use of force has been accomplished by two “students’ associations.” I wonder what these students are taught. How will they get jobs if the economy is shut down repeatedly? These “bandh” calls have been the bane of West Bengal and Kerala under the commies (who hate business) and non-commie provinces should have learnt this lesson.
I am all for political protest – but these state-wide bandhs and total shutdowns don’t hurt the politicians or the bureaucracy; they only hurt the people. In the long run, when the economy collapses, this will hurt these very students, who should be encouraged to start businesses and work at jobs rather than engage in this unruly and positively harmful politicking. The enemy is not the businessman; the enemy is The State. So hurt The State - not businessmen.
Which province am I talking about? Why, the province in which prime minister Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi is officially domiciled, from where he entered the rajya sabha via indirect election. A Congress-ruled province: Assam.
The provocation: 12 people killed by “militants” – and the State Police sitting still, not making any moves towards apprehending the culprits. The news report quotes local leaders blaming the Congress administration for the police inaction. This is a disgrace.
So let us widen the frontiers of “lawlessness” in India: Manipur, Assam, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Bengal, Orissa, Bihar (where 16 people were gunned down a few days ago), Andhra Pradesh, Kashmir… the list is long, and I may have left some places out. But it is a dangerous sign. Not that there is much law in “Mumbai” either.
In the meantime, Chacha’s “politics” is all about State-sponsored doles. These politicize economic life – even more so in states where there is no economy. Just as in Kabul, where the only avenue in life open for a young man is to pick up a gun and join some predatory gang or the other, so too in all these parts of India. The solution is not doles, which mean “State politics.” The solution is Free Markets. And a politics that strongly upholds the morality of market-based earnings. A politics of Peace, both internal and external.
With Chacha and his Congress, we will never get there. All they will do is increase the fiscal deficit, print money, borrow lavishly – and spend it all on doles, not roads. A report from an investment advisory I read last night talks of India being the Elephant, and the unsustainable deficit of The Chacha State being “Elephant Doo-Doo.”
It’s a big shit we’re in, folks.
Dear Sauvik da
ReplyDeleteThese days somehow, the idea of sound money is turning out to be philosophically so important that I am finding the reasons of its being repulsive in current intellectual community. Is the idea connected with Semitic thought or practice? Is it linked with Shylock-ian persona? Is it linked with man's moral ambition to outsmart the material self? I have seen some leftists and semi-socialists sticking to anti-sound money thoughts and they seem hell-bent. It is more dangerous than inflation even. How would u react to this kind of thing?
@ Sunil:
ReplyDeletei have just written on sound money. let's hope it is published, and soon. these leftists u mention are not just "dangerous" as you say, which they definitely are; what I have tried to establish in my column is the legal argument, which shows them to be "criminal." Look out for it. Will link it on the blog when it appears. And thanks for the interest in sound money.
I have been saying it from the early 90's - hey days of Fake Singh - that he is no reformer but an opportunist & time sever who faithfully carries out whatever his boss ask him to do -FERA, nationalization, control over companies (incl managerial pay - the current noise about "vulgar salary" sounds so familiar to ones with long memory), production controls and the black markets for phones, scooter, trucks, cement, steel, sugar, even Ambassador/Premier cars, loan melas, or looking away while , State lets Q get away with his money, Raja-Balu, Pawar, etc with their scams/loot. He (and his media chamcas such as Ashok Desai in BS) mocked national highway plan and opposed privatisations of Balco, HZL, IPCL, etc! Remember he was SecGen of an out & out statist group like South South Commission - his bhat charans will be embarrased to quote solutions from that report.
ReplyDeleteI do not fault Dr Fake Singh - he is doing what he has done all his life -it is the media, intellectuals and analysts who have become his bhompus and always give hiom free pass (with few exceptions such as yourself and an editor in Statesman). WIth opp in disarray, Gau-Bachara (cow-calf) out with jehadi-like zeal on expanding the state and spending public money, next five years will be even worse than the last five. You ain't seen nothing, sirji.
Is your ref to "analyst" is to the recent reports of Jim Walker on India?
ReplyDeleteNow we have official bandhs too. The EC is planning to forcibly shut down malls, eateries & multiplexes so that people can vote in the Maharashtra election. It's like vote, or else.
ReplyDelete@ Anon: You guessed right - it was Jim Walker. Excellent reports.
ReplyDelete@Ramesh: The EC sucks.
What about the state sponsored forced bandh of Mahrashtra on 13th Oct. Isn't that very similar.
ReplyDeletethese bandhs are all the work of tin-pot dictators, some of them officials like the EC, some of the politicians, some goondas. all these symptoms of rampant lawlessness are on account of our basic anti-market "State politics." this itself is proof of widespread miseducation.
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