On NPM... And Minarets

My column has appeared in Mint today, where I discuss New Public Management (NPM), which is the public administration of Capitalism. I advocate the sacking of public service bureaucracies, as in the case of garbage removal.

There is one small error in the document, though. The second sentence in para #5 reads:

Thatcher’s 3Es slogan for her government was “economy, efficiency and effectiveness”.

Actually, her 3Es were “economy, efficiency, and economy.” That’s right, economy came twice. Someone altered the text thinking it was an error on my part. I have written to Mint and also received a reply, so the error should be out of the internet edition soon.

In the column I have taken several swipes at the baboos of the Indian Administrative Service – swipes that I think are well-deserved, for if the country is a total mess, they must surely be as culpable as the political leadership. Note that today it is a bureaucrat who is prime minister.

The feeling I get from our netas and baboos is that they are NOT interested in making our lives better, in making our country a better place to live. Their main interest lies in carrying out the charade of government – that is, of a government that only pretends to govern.

That said, the big news of today is the Swiss referendum banning new minarets. The Express has even commented on it in an editorial. Yes, Swiss democracy is really unique – and Rousseau was a citizen of Geneva. When I visited Geneva I carefully noted that the coat of arms on the city’s cannons was the coat of arms of The City of Geneva. I was in Switzerland about a week, and asked every Swiss person I met to tell me the name of their President – and none knew who he was. We never hear of Swiss elections, ever. In the present instance, the law was passed by referendum: direct democracy. I still have some souvenirs from my trip, among them a medal of the flag of Switzerland, surrounded by the flags of all the 26 cantons. There is much we can learn from the Swiss.

I have nothing against minarets. I like them, in fact. The call for prayer sounds sweet to my ears. And I enjoyed living in that part of Goa where there are churches, temples and mosques. I am glad we are not a homogenous people; that we are not of one culture. We can truly aspire to become a “catallaxy.” Beats a “nation-state” any day.

On Sugary Beer, Steel, And Tourism

The most interesting item in the news today is a report in ET that says our The Chacha State is planning to set up “ultra mega steel plants.” But before I get to that, allow me to digress a bit on something strange that someone pointed out to me the other day: Kingfisher beer contains sugar and corn syrup. No wonder I couldn’t stomach the stuff. I bought a bottle of Carlsberg yesterday and looked up the ingredients – no sugar, no corn syrup. Good beer.

Why would Kingfisher sweeten its beer? I do believe their idea is to make the taste of beer palatable to the youth. Most kids don’t like the taste of beer and prefer drinking sweet drinks like Bacardi Breezer. I think Kingfisher is targeting this section – by destroying the taste of its beer. Methinks Mallya has too much on his hands now, what with a Formula 1 team and an airline that’s not doing too well. Anyway, it’s a great thing that he’s got competition. Vive la competition. Vive la real beer.

Getting back to our The Chacha State that also makes Steel – we cannot ridicule them enough, so allow me to ask another question: Which industry would I encourage if I were The State?

My answer: Why, tourism, of course.

This requires good roads – and Liberty, so that entrepreneurs can keep tourists happy. The hospitality industry must be free. Bars, casinos, nightclubs. And hash cafés. Entrepreneurs must have Liberty.

Tourism is the biggest industry in the world – far, far bigger than steel, or software. Today, India’s tourism earnings are negative: more Indians go abroad than foreigners come in. This is disgraceful for a nation with the highest mountains, dense forests, a desert, 4000 miles of virgin beaches – and so much of history and culture to show off. Disgraceful.

Roads are of critical importance for the growth of Indian tourism. I recall the old days when Haryana hit the tourism map with government-owned bars on highways. This turned out to be quite a success because car-owners from Delhi would drive out to enjoy an afternoon or evening in one of these bars. Today, the highways do not work, and Haryana has dropped off the tourism map.

I even saw this in Goa. The Jog Falls are just 200 km away, but none go because of bad transport connections. I was on a bus from Goa to Mangalore once, and made friends with a fellow passenger, a German sailor from Hamburg. He said he saw such bad roads only in “some parts of Africa.” And note that Chacha’s “golden quadrilateral” does not cover the coast.

So there you have it. I would focus on getting tourism to take off. I wouldn’t give two hoots to steel. In Goa, they say one tourist creates 12 local jobs. Not only that. Tourism creates a happy atmosphere as well. No more “narrow domestic walls.” Openness. Happiness.

Today, official policies are destroying this great industry. There is no Liberty. And there are no roads.

And Chacha wants to also make steel.

A State Of Pretence

Once again, the best Sunday columns I read are by Meghnad Desai and Manas Chakravarty, both on the Liberhan Commission, which took 17 years to submit its report on the Babri Masjid arson. Lord Desai speaks of the “politics” that Justice Liberhan played – and they are all politicians, aren’t they? Manas Chakraverti takes a few huge digs at the injustice of it all. I particularly liked this historical reference:

“For the anti-Sikh riots,” pointed out a historian, “they had the Marwah Commission, the Misra Commission, the Kapur Mittal Committee, the Jain Banerjee Committee, the Potti Rosha Committee, the Jain Aggarwal Committee, the Ahuja Committee, the Dhillon Committee, the Narula Committee and the Nanavati Commission, one after the other, so it was like a serial.”

What can I add to that? Nothing much – just repeat the old adage that “justice delayed is justice denied.” Justice Liberhan has been instrumental in the denial of justice. His is the “pretence of justice” in precisely the same way as Chacha’s central planning and Keynesianism are the “pretence of knowledge.” Indeed, in much the same way that they are all a “pretence of democracy.”

It is all one big ugly sham.

Pretenders rule.

Mistakes By Musicians

There is some great new music on the air, a grouping together of musicians – mainly street performers – from all over the world under the banner “Playing for Change.” YouTube has many of their videos. I was enjoying their cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Talking about revolution” when it suddenly struck me that there was something wrong in her lyrics.

She says:

Poor people gonna rise up
Get what’s theirs
[So far so good, for this means homesteading and property. But the next two lines jar.]
Poor people gonna rise up
Get their share.

“Get their share” is a meaningless proposition in a free market system. There is no Big Chief in The Market doling out “fair shares for all.” The very idea is atavistic.

As I was thinking about this error on the part of Tracy Chapman, it struck me that there are two other prominent examples of similar errors that I could point out to my readers. The first is John Lennon, in his greatest song, “Imagine.” There, Lennon imagines Hell when he sings:

Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed, no hunger,
A brotherhood of man.

No possessions? No Property? Can anyone “imagine” such a world? Can you imagine all the poor raiding all the shops and all the mansions of the rich in the name of universal brotherhood? Society will break down in minutes if we announced that all properties are to be held in common.

I wonder who taught Lennon “civics” in Liverpool. It was long, long ago, in 1690, that John Locke, an Englishman, wrote that “where there is no Property there is no Justice.” Nor can there be any Liberty either. Liberty, Justice and Property are inter-related.

But the great John Lennon saw it not.

Next on my list is Bob Marley himself (or should I say Peter Tosh, for Tosh wrote the song) and his super-hit rebel song, “Get up, stand up.” The refrain goes, “Stand up for your RIGHTS.”

Now, if we all go about “standing up for our rights,” our enemies will forever confound us by multiplying these rights. We will get more and more meaningless rights to fight for – while still being denied Property, as in India.

We Indians have recently fought for and won a “right to information” as well as a “right to education.” We always fight for “human rights.” But we have no Property.

If I were to reword this great song, I would put it thus:

Get up, Stand up,
Stand up for your Liberties.

Yes, there is no “right to smoke.” It is a Liberty.

Excuse me while I exercise this Liberty.

Boom Shankar!

In Praise Of Middlemen

Some weeks ago, I had mentioned my new-found friend, Bablu Das, the property dealer without property. He makes a living by dealing in titled properties in New Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park; while his own house is in Tughlaquabad, where they possess no titles. Hence my description of the man:

“Property dealer without property.”

What does this reveal about the nature of our political rulers? First, that despite all the big talk of socialist “equality,” official policies have actually worked the opposite way, making India a deeply stratified society. This is clear in New Delhi itself:

First Class: Lutyens’ Bungalow Zome

Second Class: Outside LBZ but possessed of property titles.

Third Class: No property titles, no postal address, no sewage lines etc.

Fourth Class: Village India, no titles.

Fifth Class: Forested India, no property at all.

And so on and so forth.

Quite frankly, instead of all the “reservations” for the lower castes and the forest-dwellers, I would much prefer to build an Urban India where everyone lives FIRST CLASS – where all properties have titles, postal addresses, sewage lines… everything. This is not difficult to achieve. And it will yield far more for all our poor people than all reservations put together.

But we were talking about Bablu Das.

Well, the other day, a friend made some inquiries about properties in my area and, looking for answers, I naturally turned to my friend Bablu, who happily obliged. When I relayed the information to my friend, I was asked how I had come by this knowledge. When I responded that a property dealer had told me this, I was told to stay clear of such types. My well-meaning friend seemed to dislike property dealers in general. Perhaps she disliked all “middlemen” – as our school and college education had taught us to. I then set about thinking of a killing argument in favour of Bablu Das, to convince my friend that he and others like him were useful members of the commonwealth. This proved to be quite easy.

The other day, Bablu Das told me a sad story. He spoke of how he had shown a difficult client 8 houses, but she was still not satisfied. He said that he would show her 4 more, and then give up altogether. Drove the point home: That property dealers like him take great pains to ensure that their clients get satisfaction. You could, of course, try to acquire property without going through such dealers, but it is anyone’s guess whether you would be better off doing so.

My friend did not like the fact that property dealers charge commissions – that too, from both sides. Huge racket, she thought. But the fact is that these “transaction costs” are “good costs” – in that they make for a better outcome. If you pay these transaction costs, you are likely to be better off.

The same is true of all middlemen.

On Getting Rid Of Fear

Today is the first anniversary of the Mumbai Massacre, where 10 armed terrorists killed over 200 unarmed people over 2 days – only because the general populace is unarmed as well. There were reports of brave citizens throwing stones at Pakis armed with AK-47s. Yet, none think of an armed citizenry as a solution to the provision of security. All have faith in the State Police, which is nothing but an ugly, extremely ugly, exploitative monopoly.

Today, there are many articles and editorials on the Mumbai Massacre, but what I would like to draw my reader’s attention to is the lead editorial in Mint – titled “A Republic Living With Fear.”

The title of this editorial jarred with me, for I am a great fan of Rabindranath Tagore's immortal poem, “Where the Mind is Without Fear.”

Tagore was born in 1861, and the Indian Police Act is also dated 1861. It is the Indian Police Act that has made this nation a “republic of fear.” Tagore thought otherwise.

Of course, only “responsible” people should possess gun licenses. But our current policies are aimed at denying them just this. I would advocate a proactive policy aimed towards arming citizens who want to own guns, who pay taxes, who possess no criminal record, and who are pillars of society.

We own Godrej almirahs to protect our valuables. We buy Godrej locks for our front doors. We keep dogs. We hire private security guards for our residential localities. In precisely the same way, we must own guns. A Colt is better than a Godrej at making us feel safe – “where the mind is without fear.”

It is well said that “a gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.”

Among the columnists of today, I recommend Vir Sanghvi, who also says that “The Authorities” were sleeping during the carnage. I remember reading that a bystander noted that armed cops within the CST train terminus were hiding as the killers went about killing. We cannot depend on armed mercenaries in State employ for our security. We must arm ourselves. And train ourselves. Why do terrorists never target Switzerland? – only because every citizen there is armed to the teeth. Such citizens are also the eyes and ears of the Swiss police.

I also recommend Salil Tripathi’s column titled “Bambai, Meri Jaan.” He strikes the right note. Yes, the map of Bombay is like a human arm reaching out. I wrote an editorial once in ET suggesting that we Indians should buy the Statue of Liberty from the Yanks and install it in Bombay harbour.

Yeah!

“Give India your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

The Yanks don’t believe in all these lofty thoughts anymore. So let us.

Note that Chacha is cozying up to Uncle Sam Obama, just as he cozied up to Uncle Sam George Bush, in order to get our The Chacha State in possession of nuclear weapons, and to have “co-operation” in combating terrorism. As if Uncle Sam has made Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan safer.

Say “No” to Uncle Sam – and his dollar.

Say “No” to nuclear weapons.

Say “Yes” to the Colt.

On Manipur... And Chacha

There is a longish but heartfelt story on Manipur in Mint today that tells us a lot about how our The Chacha State handles dissent in the far-flung provinces. This is worth noting at a time when Omar Abdullah in Kashmir says he still needs the Indian Army there to support his "democratic" rule.

The report talks of 6,00,000 jobless educated youth, many of them now pulling rickshaws, It adds that there are about 1,00,000 jobs in the government – all taken. Further, it speaks of how “Manipur has received very little private investment, and there’s almost no job in the private sector either.”

Kashmir has gone the same way.

And now they will do the same to all the Naxal-Maoist-PCPA affected states. All 10 of them.

There cannot be a “civil government” where the majority are government employees!

A civil government exists only as an appendage of a society where survival is essentially based on Market exchanges. Where there is no Market, there can only be rampant State Clientelism – and eternal internal war.

The only solution is a New Politics – one that speaks of Free Trade, Free Markets, Private Property – and Peace.

We must put an end to The Chacha Manmohan politics – which is all about State handouts to the rural poor – more cleintelism. Chacha seems to think his The State exists to employ all. The man must be nutts.

There are two editorials today on Chacha’s defense of the US dollar. The Express sounds like the PMO drafted the edit. Mint, on the other hand, strikes the right, questioning note.

Finally, I would like to add to yesterday’s post where I spoke of how Chacha owes his ascent to bureaucracy and not democracy. I would like to add that bureaucrats exist to “serve ministers” – not the people, nor the law. Chacha has been a “loyal” servant of the Nehru-Gandhi clan all his life. His ascent is because of his sycophancy, nothing else.

Further, Chacha spoke of how an India that solves the problems of poverty, disease and illiteracy will have “lessons for the evolution of the countries of the hitherto Third World in the 21st century.” Here, I hold that India has led the Third World astray with its foolish statist ideas, including State socialism and a closed economy.

Only if India changes course and embraces free markets and free trade, with consequent urbanization, itself based on an excellent roads network, can India influence the Third World positively. This must be kept in mind: that government economists like Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi have spent a career leading other Third World nations astray. What will they do to us? Ask someone in Manipur.

Exposing Chacha's Bald Lies

Excerpts from the CNN interview of our great leader, Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi, by the veteran Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, have appeared in Mint today. You can watch the interview here. There is a transcript here.

What I found most interesting is the ending:

ZAKARIA: Mr. Prime Minister, you grew up a poor boy on a farm in Punjab. You were a scholarship student. You went to Cambridge. Here you are, prime minister of the largest democracy in the world. Did you ever think, growing up as a child, you would end up in this position?

SINGH: Well, I'm sorry; I never thought that I would reach that far. I am what I am, because of the education that I received. But it's due to democracy that a person with such a background as mine can, I think, become the prime minister of this great republic of ours.

ZAKARIA: Do you think India's rise in that sense has a lesson to teach the world?

SINGH: I think, India, if it succeeds in remaining a functioning democracy, and simultaneously tackling problems of poverty, disease, illiteracy, that, if we do succeed, I think that is going to be an international public good. It would have lessons for the evolution of the countries of the hitherto Third World in the 21st century.

Now, Chacha’s claim that his success has lots to do with democracy is clearly a bald lie. Chacha’s rise has nothing to do with democracy. He has risen up the bureaucratic ladder. And there is more bureaucracy in India than democracy. Chacha lost the Lok Sabha elections from South Delhi. He entered the Rajya Sabha (Upper House: Council of States) from Assam via indirect elections. He is attempting to fool the world into thinking that his own rags-to-riches story owes everything to democracy. What Fareed Zakaria should have asked him is this: Which is the constituency you have nurtured? The only answer Chacha can then offer is “None.” Indeed, ask any Indian politician what he or she has done for his constituency and you will get the same answer. Amethi and Rae Bareilly are disaster zones. As is Birbhum in West Bengal, the pocket borough of the finance minister Pranab Mukherji. What about Kamal D Nutt’s constituency in backward Madhya Pradesh? We are yet to have an investigative report on that.

Let us now look at Chacha’s claim, repeated many times during this interview, that India is a “functioning democracy.” I would much prefer functioning zebra crossings to the sham of the vote. Nothing that our The Chacha State provides can be called “functioning.” Roads are unsafe, water supply is erratic, power supply is even worse. Indeed, rich or poor, or middle class, people throughout India are crying out for bijli, sadak and paani: electricity, roads and water. These vital services are NOT functioning – and Chacha is all praise for the regular elections to public office.

Further, Zakaria himself is the author of an excellent book on “illiberal democracy.” I have read this book and recommend it highly. I am confident that Zakaria himself would be the first to contend that India’s is an “illiberal democracy.” We are extremely low on economic freedom. Further, liberal parties are disallowed.

Thus, Chacha’s idea that our “functioning democracy” can “tackle the problems of poverty, disease and illiteracy” is completely mistaken. The only way to get rid of these diseases is through a functioning Market.

We need to restrict the scope of the democratic State.

We need to strip away the discretionary powers of the bureaucracy.

We need Liberty – from The Chacha State.

More Nonsense From Our The Chacha State

The top headline in ET today is this:

New Divestment Policy: Centre to lease 6 PSUs to private Cos for 99 years

These 6 PSUs include – you guessed it – Scooters India. Yes, there was a time when they made cars, scooters and bicycles – and there were no roads. Now, we have enough cars and scooters from MNCs, but as yet have no roads worth the name. And they want to continue on the path of gross error.

Personally, I see no reason why disinvestment in PSUs should be carried out in this back-door fashion. I would much prefer a “freehold” privatization to this “leasehold” method. Let the State get out of ownership of factories, and let new private owners emerge. And let us carry on from there, jettisoning all the intellectual errors of the past – especially, Nehruvianism, the idea of a State that also makes steel. Nonsense! I would much prefer a State that also makes roads – and not much else.

At the core of the issue lies the question of Collective Property. To socialists like Nehru, these factories were “collective property.” Yet, in practice, as we have been observing for some 60 years, all these factories, hotels, banks, mines etc. have been run as if they were the “personal fiefdom” of the minister-in-charge. The minister enjoyed full “ownership” of the PSU – the “collective property” – in exactly the same manner as he enjoyed full ownership of his official bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi, which is also “collective property.” In both cases, the collective property became the private property of a person who “claims to represent the public.”

Now, as is common knowledge, ministers charge for making appointments to PSU management. Thus, candidates have to literally “purchase” managerial positions in PSUs. In effect, then, these managers obtained an indefinite lease to exploit the PSU as if it were their own property. What will change now? – except that a 99-year lease will protect the new management better from arbitrariness on the part of the minister. Yet, despite all this, the PSU will remain the minister’s personal fief. Nothing much will change.

Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi is hoodwinking us again, while also keeping the evil legacy of Nehru alive. He seems to be a consummate liar – for he has also just stated, on the eve of his departure for the USSA, that there is “no substitute for the US dollar.” Then why did your RBI buy 200 tonnes of gold, Chacha?

What would I do? Why, I would sell every PSU and invest ALL the proceeds in roads. Roads are real "collective property" that all the people, including visiting foreigners, can use freely. I just drove 40 kms out of Delhi towards Gurgaon and Manesar on the so-called "expressway." I had to pay tolls 4 times! Quadruple taxation.

Chacha is hood-winking the nation. But then, what's new? This is the only legacy of the Congress: Lies, more lies, damned lies - and, of course, STATISTICS!

The Politics Of Delusion

Among our Sunday columnists, I found Meghnad Desai most compelling. He writes of the Sachin Tendulkar – Bal Thackeray fracas, the Shiv Sena – BJP debacle, and more.

I quote from the meat of the article:

… the Shiv Sena is now reduced to fighting with the MNS, its own junior branch. Its electoral performance was such that even the BJP is distancing itself from it. It cannot have escaped Bal Thackeray’s attention that at the end of an active career of five decades, he may not have much to show for it.

In this, Shiv Sena is not that different from its older brother, the BJP. Their politics is based on envy, on the idea that the condition of those they champion—Marathi speakers for Thackeray and Hindus for BJP—is bad because of the presence of some others—non-Marathi speakers for the Shiv Sena and Muslims for the BJP. Thus, the uplift of ‘their’ people requires the persecution of the ‘other’ people.

This thought is not original either to the Shiv Sena or to the BJP. It is the standard ideology of all people who think that whatever their condition, someone else is responsible for it. Get rid of the other and you will be fine.

Alas, this is a fallacy. Prosperity does not come merely from majority rule, even if you can exclude the minority. It comes from the usual route of saving, acquisition of knowledge, enterprise and hard work. Many Marathi speakers know this and have prospered. They don’t vote Shiv Sena or MNS. Many Hindus have prospered and they find the BJP’s logic bizarre. This leaves these parties with a tough choice. You either admit you are wrong in your thinking and adapt to the evidence or you go even more extreme.

I now quote from the conclusion – and there is a sting in Desai’s tail, for he brackets the Communist parties too in this “politics of envy”:

This is not the case with only right wing parties. The CPM too is shrinking along with the rest of the parliamentary Left. It has competition from the Naxalites. If you have believed and taught that prosperity for the masses can come only by subverting the system, then you have to go on feeding false notions. The CPM has become too respectable to sustain the nonsense it used to preach. The Naxals show that the logic of that belief can only end in bloodshed.

The poor—the Marathi manoos, the Hindu, the proletariat—do not gain anything from such delusions. The leaders do and hence they find it hard to abandon them.

Lord Desai has done well to analyze the fundamentally illiberal politics of the “mainstream.” Theirs is all a politics of envy, of collectively persecuting some “others.” He says this is all “delusion,” adding the important fact that “prosperity comes from the usual route of saving, acquisition of knowledge, enterprise and hard work.” It is this fundamental truth that needs political space today. The Congress has been happy with all these deluded people in opposition, so that they could emerge a “lighter shade of black.” But this has only impoverished Indian politics in general.

The country needs liberalism in the mainstream of politics. This is the ideology that believes in the Free Market as the basis of co-operation and social harmony. The core belief is that there are greater gains to be made in co-operation and the division of labour than in warring; that we gain too when others gain. Further, this ideology is internationalist and inclusive – it seeks the whole of humanity under this market order. It wants none excluded. Free trade across political boundaries, peace, prosperity. Individual rights, individual liberty, individualism.

On a lighter note, Manas Chakravarty’s Sunday column on the “identity crisis” facing today’s Marathi manoos is worth reading as well. Especially his conclusion about Bengalis. Yes, indeed, we are all direct descendants of Led Zeppelin!

Away With Their "Visible Hand"!

It was just the other day that Chandra at Hayek Order quoted something fundamentally erroneous that our finance minister said in a recent lecture delivered in Sri Lanka. There, Pranab baboo said:

…the pursuit of individual goals do not necessarily lead to public good. Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ cannot guarantee allocation of resources efficiently.

Well, the headline news today proves the minister wrong. Over 12,000 sugarcane farmers descended upon New Delhi yesterday from the surrounds to protest sugarcane prices fixed by our The Chacha State. These prices were not determined by Adam Smith’s “invisible hand.” On the contrary, these prices were fixed by the very visible hand of State coercion – in an effort to allow sugar mills to profit at the expense of farmers. Quite obviously there will be protests.

What this proves is that it is the Visible Hand of The State that does NOT allocate resources efficiently. Further, that it causes social discord. The natural harmony of the market order breaks down as politics comes to occupy centre stage. Note that apples, tomatoes, pineapples, mangoes, grapes and oranges are bought in vast quantities by factories that convert them into juice – and total harmony prevails because all prices are determined on The Market.

So, the man to quote is Ludwig von Mises. In Omnipotent Government Mises wrote:

"The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments."

Further, in his Bureaucracy, a classic on the subject, Mises said:

"Representative democracy cannot subsist if a great part of the voters are on the government pay roll. If the members of parliament no longer consider themselves mandatories of the taxpayers but deputies of those receiving salaries, wages, subsidies, doles, and other benefits from the treasury, democracy is done for."

The following words from Mises’ Socialism are also highly relevant today:

"The desire for an increase of wealth can be satisfied through exchange, which is the only method possible in a capitalist economy, or by violence and petition as in a militarist society, where the strong acquire by force, the weak by petitioning."

Hence we see the sugarcane farmers protesting and petitioning.

The other way is the path of harmony, peaceful voluntary exchange, free markets and all prices determined by market forces.

That is the path we must now choose. Enough of State Interventionism. Away with their “visible hand”!

On Roads, Baboons, And Naxals

Today, the lead editorial in the Express is on road safety, as is the lead article in the ToI. Indeed, the callous indifference to road safety exhibited by our The Chacha State should prompt us to seek solutions outside the State Police. One easy solution is to treat all road accident injuries as torts. It is tort laws that make people careful not to injure others. With torts, the victim is compensated. Today, the victim gets nothing – and rumours suggest that the State Police get a lot.

Yet, it is not just the State police who are grossly incompetent: as far as highways and expressways are concerned, our IAS baboons are no better. A report in Mint says that The Chacha State will allow real estate development along expressways. This means that those who build roads here in India know nothing about their subject. They are as incompetent as the State Police.

There are three types of roads: first, those that provide access to properties; second, those that connect these access roads to highways; and finally, right on top, come highways and expressways, which connect one place to another, but do NOT provide access to any roadside properties. By this definition, we have no highways at all in India, for all our highways are lined with properties. All our "notional highways" are basically "access roads." But it seems like our Bozos-on-Top do not want to learn anything. Note that if there are properties along expressways, safety will be hugely lowered.

As far as the real estate industry is concerned, the best our Chacha State can do for them is to vastly simplify the procedures for obtaining property titles. This article in Mint today is a shocker, detailing the screwy procedures our IAS-wallahs have put in place now. Away with these morons!

What can we expect from the IAS-IPS baboons? The editors of Mint seem to be expecting a lot. Today, they too have joined the call for crushing the Maoist-Naxalite-PCPA rebellion with armed force. Easier said that done. And war only improves the health of The State while destroying the lives and finances of the sheeple. The bozo cops who cannot deliver a single working pedestrian crossing anywhere in this vast territory will obtain BIG BUDGETS to fight this war. And once the budgets are granted, these bozos will want to perpetuate their "work" – as in the case of Siachen. The editors of Mint have quoted Mancur Olson on free riding. They should also consider William Niskanen and his theory of the budget-maximizing bureaucrat.

Speaking of “public choice theory,” which is still not taught in India, here is a wonderful tribute to James Buchanan, one of the key thinkers of this school, on his 90th birthday. Buchanan’s key insight is that “State failure” is more rampant than commonly understood, while “market failure,” which is taught, is extremely rare. As the article says:

Buchanan insists that we should always look upon "politics without romance," that we ought never to forget that all the fine campaign phrases and soaring promises issued by politicians too often disguise the selfish, sometimes sleazy, reality of political activity.

Buchanan concludes that the USSA needs a new Constitution.

So do we. A Second Republic.

So let us not give more powers and budgets to The Chacha State. Rather, let us systematically strip them of all their powers. Let them be forced to accede to all the demands of the rebels. There is this other report in Mint on Bastar, which begins thus:

In a moment of rare frankness, the senior Indian Administrative Service official described how, on one of his official trips to rural Maharashtra, he saw a poster printed by Naxalites in the northern Gadchiroli region, making 40 demands of the government. “Would you believe it? I agreed with 39 out of the 40,” he said. “I just disagreed with one: armed rebellion.”

They all say that there are a few good men still there. This must be one of them.

Give Peace A Chance

My best read of this morning was Eric Margolis on LRC, an article titled “Teuton and Gaul will never fight again,” on Franco-German peace and friendship. Yes, I’ll raise a toast to that, and hope that India and Pakistan can speedily resolve their differences too. We must solve the Kashmir problem soon, keeping the interests of the local people uppermost in our minds.

Actually, India’s biggest problem is all the internal wars: apart from Kashmir, there is Manipur, and then there is the Naxalite-Maoists insurgency in 90 districts. Our Chacha State has no clue as to how to resolve these internal problems, themselves caused by bad State policies of the past.

On this front, I am happy that Abheek Barman has written eloquently on the futility of using the armed might of the Chacha State against these poor people. His conclusion is frank and forthright:

To get Naxals into the political mainstream, the political mainstream has to make the first move. And to do that, the government has to take the first step to reconciliation.

How do Naxalites happen? I got some idea of that last evening as I walked to my nearest market to buy cigarettes and some fruit. I buy these from street vendors, but yesterday they were all gone – vanished. I could guess what must have happened for I then saw a burly cop wielding a big lathi ordering the ice-cream vendor to bugger off or face his wrath.

I think these are the kinds of State actions that promote all these rebellions. A good man trying to make a living selling ice-cream will easily drift into a rebel movement if cops throw him out of The Market. He will become a sworn cop-killer. Note that in Lalgarh, West Bengal, the rebels have grouped together under the banner of an organization that calls itself People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA).

Yes, our cops too need to think.

After all, why is the Teuton at peace with the Gaul? The only reason is that they now prefer to trade with each other. They have discovered the secrets of social co-operation and the international division of labour. The personnel of our Chacha State need to discover these too.

A Challenge for our Civil Services

There is a story in Mint today from the Naxalite-affected province of Chhatisgarh that I advise my reader to read in full. It is only after you read it that you should read the rest of this post.

What do you make of it?

Doesn’t it sound like The Bhateeja State has lost the plot? People like me study “civil government” – but here we have a quasi-military one; or a “police-backed State” if you prefer. The police building roads? Whatever next?

And people dying for the sake of building the road?

And this road is a “prestige issue” for the Top Cop?

And the chief minister saying he will “push for governance” – with the State police leading the march?

What is “civil government”?

Note that the Top Cop got his job after sitting for a “civil services” examination. These dudes are supposed to be “civil servants” – of a “civil government.”

Instead of that, what we have is internal civil war.

And the plunder of mineral wealth.

And a ban on mahua.

It was perhaps a decade ago that a young IAS officer from Chhatisgarh came calling upon me in my then office at the Economic Times. He was a fan of my writings on bureaucracy, and wanted me to autograph one of these columns. After that fuss, we had a small chat, whereupon he presented me with a CD on what the Chattisgarh government was planning to do to develop the state. The entire CD was all about highways and urban development. Obviously this never happened. What actually happened is what the story in Mint reveals: “Bridges, roads, hand pumps are all built on paper.” I recall that the new state was under a Congress government then, whose “dynamic” chief minister, Ajit Jogi, later dropped out of politics because of injuries suffered in a road accident. Someone told me that Jogi is a former IAS officer.

Looks like the IAS-IPS chaps have totally lost the plot too. Since they are a “constitutional bureaucracy,” this must be looked upon as a “constitutional crisis.”

One phrase rankled: “prestige issue.”

In other words, “dadagiri” (bullying).

The British would have sent in a young “political officer.” He would hold parleys, drink their mahua, dance with them to their jungle drums, sign a treaty and establish local independence under the overall suzerainty of the British raj. Someone like the young Captain James Tod.

Any Indian “civil servant” out there capable of carrying out this delicate mission?

Who Are Running Amuck?

It can’t get any worse than this: Remember the Shopian case, where 2 Kashmiri women were allegedly raped and murdered in May? Well, the news has it that their vaginal swabs have been tampered with. Those poor women have had their bodies exhumed – violated in life, violated in death – and there is NO JUSTICE.

One drastic solution to this business of cops tampering with evidence is to allow the victims to collect their own evidence and prosecute their own cases. This is how the law worked in Merrie Olde England. Read Bruce Benson, here.

This disgusting news of police ineptitude and corruption brought me back to a stoned conversation I had with a baba and his bhakt in an ashram in a jungle last morning.

The bhakt took a stand that without the State police, we cannot be safe from harm. Anyone will steal our daughters, he said.

I dunno about daughters, I told him, but in my life I have had a stereo system stolen, a motorcycle stolen, and, most recently, my laptop was stolen in Goa. I have never got anything back.

So the guy shifted gears and spoke of the need for a lagaam (bridle) for the people: a State police are essential for “controlling” the people, he said. Otherwise, they would run amuck.

I replied that it was precisely the State police who needed a lagaam, for it is they who are running amuck.

We are not lawless; the State police are, I said.

I think he saw the light then, for he abandoned the discussion and got to work on preparing a great big chillum. He then offered it to me to inaugurate. We became friends.

The Worship Of Monkeys

Bandar ke haath mein talwar – these words come to mind when reading the top stories in the news today: The Sword is in the hands of a Monkey.

Indeed, monkeys, our closest cousins, make for an interesting case towards a better understanding of human morality. Note that monkeys cannot trade – they only steal whatever they want. Snatch and grab is their only recourse. Now contrast them with humans – who buy bananas, and everything else – and you will arrive at conclusions very different from Thomas Hobbes (of Leviathan fame) who, it must be noted, never saw a monkey in his life.

If we contrast humans and monkeys, we note that there is a “natural order” in the affairs of humans because we are “rule-following animals.” And the rule is this:

Possession Indicates Property.

We buy and sell all through our lives without resorting to any “paperwork,” only because of this Golden Rule. When I give Parimal a hundred rupees for 5 packs of Silk Cut, and he hands the same over to me, Property has changed hands, Parimal is now the owner of the State note, and I am the owner of the cigarettes. And everyone in the bazaar agrees that we have treated each other with Justice, and that the exchange of properties was legitimate. The new pattern of ownership is accepted as legitimate by all.

Because they cannot trade, monkeys are lawless. So if monkeys took to the sword, mayhem would ensue. And it has:

Item #1: Raj Thuggeray issuing notice to the State Bank of India that they must hire Marathi manoos as clerks. This is blatant misuse of the talwar, whose purpose is to see that fair competition prevails, that all candidates for clerkship compete fairly with each other, so that SBI hires the best.

Once again, there is this difference in political philosophy: We idealize a world where FORCE is minimized, and used only according to The Law. People like Thuggeray believe precisely in the misuse of force, on coercion. Yet, they are “recognized” as politicians heading political parties. We are not. Funny old world.

Item #2: The story of the grabbing of tribal lands rich in iron ore by the Tatas and the Essar Group. Here the precise rule being violated is that which we observe in all our markets: Possession Indicates Property. Once again, those who are wielding the Sword of State are acting like lawless monkeys.

What do we do?

I recall many a stay in Koppa, a small village on the outskirts of Bangalore, where I used to hold seminars for students. Here, monkeys were a huge menace. They would raid the dining hall. They would raid our rooms. Indeed, my own room was raided once.

One day, I took a walk through Koppa just to check out the place. There was only one temple they had. It was dedicated to the Monkey God – Hanuman.

I found it rather strange that it was precisely where monkeys are a nuisance that the people worship the Monkey God.

On Our Original Chacha... And Poona Today

The newspapers today are all full of Nehru – today is the 120th birth anniversary of our Original Chacha. Mint has many articles on the man and quite a few great photos too. I suggest you buy a copy. The Times of India, oddly enough, has many State advertisements – including one paid for by the ministry of steel, on which they quote Nehru’s vision of a State that also makes Steel – or should it be “Steal”?

Anyway, this day is also celebrated as Children’s Day – for legend has it that the Original Chacha loved all his bhateejas and bhateejis – us. Yet, when a loving bhateeja like me finally acquired the wisdom to reassess the man, he was forced to conclude that Chacha Nehru was EVIL. Read that historic article here.

Actually, it was Bastiat who really loved the young. His preface to Economic Harmonies is titled “To The Youth” – and this essay is the first in my The Essential Frederic Bastiat: free download here. The essay begins thus:

Eagerness to learn, the need to believe in something, minds still immune to age-old prejudices, hearts untouched by hatred, zeal for worthy causes, ardent affections, unselfishness, loyalty, good faith, enthusiasm for all that is good, beautiful, sincere, great, wholesome, and spiritual—such are the priceless gifts of youth. That is why I dedicate this book to the youth.

So read Bastiat and don’t read Chacha’s books at all.

And talking about the youth, I must report the horrific tale of what happened as I surfed the ToI website this morning. There is a feature on the homepage called “Cities” where you can choose the city you want and obtain news of happenings there. After looking around here and there, I finally clicked on Pune. And the first item on the list, written in bold letters, was this:

Two killed in road mishap

I was immediately taken back to the few months I spent in Pune some years ago. Not a single day passed without a report of some people, usually motorcyclists, usually young, getting killed on the roads. This happened EVERY SINGLE DAY for a few months.

I recall meeting a retired general who once headed the Armed Forces’ Medical College, which is located in Pune. He told me that a large percentage of his students suffered road accidents when they drove into town, usually on two-wheelers. He joked that it was probably safer to go to war than go to Main Street.

I recall a bus ride from Pune to Mumbai during which my fellow-passenger was a young sardarji from Jalandhar who was in Pune to study something or the other. When quizzed by me about road accidents, he related an eerie tale. He said that whenever a student died his college used to observe a holiday. But now that deaths are so frequent, they merely observe a minute’s silence.

Get it?

And Pune is supposed to be a "student town"!

All I Wanna Say Is That They Don’t Really Care About Us.

So don’t fall for all this Chacha-Bhateeja-Children’s Day nonsense.

Our The State actually hates you.

Which is why they call you The Population Problem.

On Their "Leave This Place Or I Shoot" Theory Of Society

There are two items in the news today pertaining to our indigenous tribal forest dwellers. The first says that they are to be moved out of their homelands to make space for The Tiger. An incentive of Rs. 100,000 is being offered – but not all want to move out.

This is a recurrent theme in socialist India: people have to physically move homes and hearths for the greater common good. During the Partition, my own people had to shift from East to West Bengal – for “democracy,” I presume. Or was it for majoritarianism? Or even “hindootva”? I wonder. In exactly the same way, millions moved from West Punjab and Sind. And millions moved the other way. And after all this mass movement, the greater common good still eludes us.

Indigenous tribal communities have had a bad time under The Socialist Chacha State because their great Constitution, which does not recognize Private Property as absolute, abets “legal plunder” – as in the case of “nationalization.” These tribals have been asked to move out of their homelands for various reasons ranging from saving The Tiger, to building dams, to quarrying, and so on. This must end. Property must rule.

However, Chacha is going the other way. There is news that says The Chacha State is declaring perpetual war against our forest-dwellers. A report in HT today says that 60,000 armed State policemen are to be unleashed upon the tribals of Bastar. The report is titled “Tribal Bastar prepares for War.” This bit from the report tells of the enormity of the task:

Bastar, 10 times the size of Kashmir Valley, includes the Maoists’ liberated zone — the sprawling, out-of-bounds 4,000 sq km expanse called Abujhmarh (the unknown forest).

What is also worth noting is this remark of the commander-in-chief of these operations:

“Five years,” said Vishwa Ranjan, Chhattisgarh’s director-general of police. “In five years, they will have to leave this area.”

“Leave this area?”

For what? So that State licensees can plunder their mineral-rich lands?

And 5 years of internal war?

I suggest an immediate and unilateral recognition of Property – on the part of the Chacha State. I suggest “political” solutions to this uprising. I oppose this internal war. And, most importantly, I must add that I do not think our poor, ill-equipped constables should be sacrificed thus, at the altar of The Chacha State. This is a political problem that needs politicians to solve, not policemen. But none at the Centre are “politicians” in any sense of the word, are they?

Democracy without politics?

Ha ha. What a JOKE!

On Their Top Professor... And Second-Class Citizens

Thanks to Hayek Order providing the link, we have the Swaminathan Aiyar-Jean Dreze debate on the NREGA (rural workfare scheme) – the Flagship of the Chacha State – as the first topic on our agenda this misty morning.

Although Aiyar concludes against this corrupt idea, nowhere does he use the term “economic freedom.” Both of them concur that the “Tamil Nadu model” is best, where good roads have made villages into towns. Yet, neither talk of aggressive urbanization as a solution to poverty; indeed, nowhere do they talk of Property for the urban poor. Their entire focus is on the rural poor. A village-centred idea of poverty removal – via The State. In the meantime, villagers are moving in hordes to our cities, where they get fucked by the cops, the municipal authorities and all the other parasites – and end up living in slums without titles to their Property.

What I would like to draw my reader’s attention to is the following extract from Jean Dreze, who is, I believe, Professor Emeritus of Delhi University. He says:

State governments now have an incentive to maximise labour intensity, because the government of India pays for all the wages, but only part of the material costs. And climate change may increase the value of labour-intensive environmental protection works. So, there may be lots of hidden possibilities here.

The man is a Luddite. He champions “labour-intensive” workfare – which means more labour and less capital, so lower productivity and lower wages. And all this at State cost. The man is nutts. And he’s a climate change wallah too. And he’s the State’s top professor. Now do you see why I advise all our youth to drop out of this State Education System?

Next: I would also like to draw my reader’s attention to a news report that says the Orissa government has shut down 64 mines. There seems to be something seriously wrong with the mining sector in India – and the only cure is Property. And this is also the only Law that will deliver Justice to poor rural- and forest-folk who should be the real owners of their mineral-rich lands, and are now turning to Naxalism. I have an earlier post on mining.

Anyway, I do not just surf the web to find interesting things to write about for my reader’s enjoyment; I also surf the city. This morning, I discovered a huge market inside my nearest slum, Govindpuri. From the main road, where I was parked, you cannot see a single shop. But once you step inside, and walk down the extremely narrow pathway, there are shops, shops, and more shops. Someone told me there are over 150 shops – excluding the fish market. I found a music CD shop, and also a VCD DVD shop. There was a barber shop, a sweet shop, some “general stores,” a shop selling cloth. All kinds of little, little shops, in a place where all have little, little rooms to live in. I made inquiries about the cost of these shops, and was told that “property” on this hidden “main street” went for over 200,000 rupees. I advised the people to develop their own Property title system. Perhaps they do have something like that already – for these properties are bought and sold, and rented.

I am back home now, and here we have roads, property titles, sewage lines – and I hate it. I do not believe in cities where over half the population are second-class citizens. There is enough unowned land around Delhi for all these people. If this land was colonized, property prices would fall, for the benefit of the poor.

I too have the interests of the poor at heart. I too go to their slums to actually see things for myself. And my prescription varies significantly from that of the State’s Professor Emeritus:

My prescription is Aggressive Urbanization powered by good roads; colonization of land around cities for the urban poor; Property titles; sound money; free trade; and total economic freedom – the “system of natural liberty.”

Alternative Nation

Today, let us discuss the great “conflict of visions” between The Chacha State and those who believe in Liberty.

The Chacha State’s vision, a Gandhian one, is of an India comprising hundreds of thousands of “self-sufficient village republics.”

Our vision is that of hundreds of free-trading cities, and thousands of such towns – all self-governing, of course.

Today, there is a small report in Mint titled “India needs hundreds of new cities” – on a panel discussion that transpired during their recent “economic summit.” The report discusses problems developers face – particularly in buying land. I wonder why no one talked about homesteading unowned land.

To add to what the report says, I would like to emphasize transportation, particularly roads. In British India, they built 80 “hill-stations” in 50 years only by understanding the “natural patters” that occur in society. One such pattern is “hubs-and-spokes.” Thus, their hill-stations were laid out on “spokes” extending from the great metropolitian cities – the “hubs.”

So you see Poona, Mahabaleshwar, Matheran, Panchgani, Lonavla, etc. built upon spokes extending from Bombay. Ditto for Darjeeling and Shillong, and Calcutta. From Delhi, spokes were built to Simla, Mussoorie and others; from Madras, there were spokes to Ooty and Kodaikanal. Without these transport connections to the big cities, small towns, or brand new cities, cannot succeed.

In those days, the automobile had not been invented – but the steam locomotive had. The British connected their hill-stations to their cities by rail. You can still see these mountain railways working in Simla, in Darjeeling, and in the Nilgiris. Matheran, which I have yet to visit, had no road connection at all, and it is only recently that its toy train stopped working.

If we are to build successful new cities we must focus on transportation from the existing metros – the hubs of Indian commerce. Even if 20 spokes are built – both rail and road – leading out from each of these hubs, connecting all the existing satellite towns, and also all the “new cities,” the urban scenario in India will be dramatically improved.

Stanmore was the first “ribbon housing” development in London after WWII. It succeeded because the London Underground’s Jubilee Line was extended there – overland, of course. I visited Stanmore just to check – and it is a spaciously laid out new town. But the people living there would never have done so if the direct and fast connection to The City did not exist.

Yeah, we need property titles. But we also need to focus on transportation. Without that, we are doomed. Roads, railways, tramways – the lot.

Further, with free trade, our coastline will urbanize aggressively. We will need twin coastal expressways.

Note that The Chacha State has still not considered "hubs-and-spokes," nor thought of coastal expressways. Their much touted and long delayed "Golden Quadrilateral" is a mere 5-city vision, connecting the 5 overcrowded metros. Chacha possesses no urban vision.

To conclude, some words on “rural development,” the great Gandhian chimera. We have chased this bleak vision for 60 years – this, while millions of villagers have moved to cities, and all these neglected cities have become hell-holes. We even destroyed all the hill-stations.

The records state that the Congress pursued “rural development” even in British times, when they came to occupy ministries after the GoI Act of 1935. Philip Mason was a District Magistrate in Dehra Doon then. This is what ICS officers like him thought of this nonsensical idea:

As to Rural Development, most British officers would have agreed that a great deal of what was proposed was admirable if the villagers would do it themselves, but they were skeptical about trying to change habits from above – and much of the effort put into the attempt seemed to them wasteful and incompetent.

This charade of “rural development” has to end.

The new vision must be of 500 Hong Kongs, Dubais, Singapores…. And thousands and thousands of Stanmores.

Let us not only live better, in excellent urban environs, let us also own great properties, and make the whole of India a great piece of real estate. The beauty of nature is everywhere – a free gift – but all our man-made cities and towns are ugly beyond belief. At fault is their vision. This false vision must be ditched.

For Liberty, Against Democracy

A bumper sticker Scott Horton sent me reads:

“Bad Criminals Go To Jail, The Best Go To Washington.”

It was shortly after enjoying a great laugh these stickers gave me that I read the news about how MNS chauvinists roughed up an MLA for taking his oath in Hindi. The headline in the Times of India is noteworthy:

MNS lawmakers turn into lawbreakers in Assembly

The philosopher to blame for this is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who exalted the legislator to incredible heights. He is the man who founded the idea of a “general will.” And the “social contract.” Observing the conduct of actual legislators, that too within their “august house,” should make us all skeptical of “democracy.”

[Bastiat took Rousseau apart in “The Law.” You can read “The Law” here.]

In particular, this incident, which is certainly not the first of its kind, should make us doubt legislation as well. We should arrive at an understanding that “Law” and “legislation” are different things, with different purposes. We must not equate man-made legislation with law – something that comes from the past. We must doubt “positive law” – precisely that which is created by legislators: “law that is legally made.” We can then live in a “private law” world governed by Property, Contracts and Torts. If we treat all criminal acts as Torts (as the ancients did) – then we can live in peace and harmony – and Law – without any State interference at all. Legislators only make “public law” – that which is binding on the personnel of The State, whose budgets and policies come under their purview. This would be the “rule of law” – when The State is under the law. Today, their minions are above the law. And then they claim legitimacy to make law!

Getting back to the happenings in Mumbai, all I can add is that this is NOT “politics” – a word born in Ancient Athens. What makes for real politics is a “recognition of restraints.” What the MNS is doing is better called “rowdyism.” It is interesting that the Election Commission “recognizes” the MNS as a genuine “political party” and allots them a “symbol” for using in their “politics.” Raj Thuggeray gets Z Category VVIP security from The Chacha Sate – to protect him from his many enemies. However, the same Chacha State’s judiciary refuses to entertain the plea of SV Raju & Co. to set up a liberal party. This PIL has been pending before the Bombay High Court for over a decade now.

So far, we have concluded that this incident in an august assembly reflects poorly on democracy, on legislation, on politics, and on our recognized political parties. Let us now take the discussions a little further – to “political ideals.” Indeed, all political parties are supposedly different because they subscribe to different ideals.

In socialist Chacha State India, not a single party possesses any political ideal. The Congress is just a bunch of sycophants swarming around a Gandhi, milking the budget, milking the PSUs, milking the banks, etc. The BJP is not “political” because they do not exhibit the “recognition of restraints” so vital to real politics. The CPI(M), I am sure, is no longer faithful to the political ideals of Karl Marx. And the rest of the parties are, like the MNS, just rowdy and corrupt gangs led by some big goonda under State protection.

Do you still call this “democracy”?

I prefer Liberty.

Grant Them Liberty

Let us stay focused on the Maoist-Naxalite uprising, this sudden civil war. There is news of fresh violence – the killing of 4 more cops. This report also quotes the Maoist leader, Kishanji, as saying: “…the war is on. We will win the war. Let the Centre deploy as many forces they want,"

There is another news report on what West Bengal’s communist chief minister, buddhudeb, had to say, for these cops were killed shortly after his 2-day visit to West Midnapore, the district where all the rebel action is. He wants to “target Maoists at full-tilt and push ahead with development projects in the tribal belt.” This is the famous “carrot & stick” the editors of the Times of India recently advocated. I had discussed the errors in such thinking in this post.

What is worth noting is this para from the ToI report today:

On the second day of his visit to Midnapore, Bhattacharjee on Sunday prepared ‘‘a blueprint for offensive’’ with senior officials of the Maoist-affected districts of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura, ruling out any talks till they drop arms.

Actually, all these “senior officials” have lost their civic authority long ago. Some years back, maybe a decade ago, I met an IAS officer who served as District Magistrate in one of these places. He told me that his writ did not run beyond the gates of his colonial bungalow. There has been a complete breakdown in the civil administration. And what is buddhudeb’s solution?:

NO TALKS.

Just ask the State cops to shoot the fuckers, and dole out more and more of our money to the DMs to spend on “development.”

What an idea, Sirjee.

This is a repeat of Kashmir, of Manipur.

Perpetual internal wars.

And note that the scandal over the Jharkhand CM’s corruption involved mining licenses – once again a negation of Property. Jharkhand is where a police inspector was beheaded. I discussed mining here.

How does the average adivasi view the police? My uncle once told me the story of how he had a tough time obtaining mahua in one of these jungles – because, seeing his big, burly frame, all the forest-dwellers mistook him for a cop. Mahua is a spirit distilled from a jungle flower of the same name. It is an excellent drink. It is illegal – and the only economic activity allowed is mining, for which State cops are used to take over tribal lands.

Cops are not liked too much in these forests. And as for forest guards, the less said the better. Of course, cops are not liked too much in Delhi either.

There comes a time when a huge big State loses its legitimacy completely. This is one such moment. Things have come to such a sorry pass only because the personnel of our The State have persisted in doing wrong things, thinking the people will never revolt. Hubris.

I suggest that Kishanji instruct buddhudeb to withdraw ALL his forces and the ENTIRE district administration from West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Let these districts be free so that the people can set up their own institutions of local self-government.

Self-rule will bring about peace, and without peace The Market cannot function, so no “development” can ever be possible in a war zone. Keep that in mind. Also note that there cannot be a “civil government” unless the natural order prevails, for such a government exists only to “maintain the peace,” not to “establish” it. That is the task of “politics” – but then I repeat myself.

More On Gold

Nothing much to blog about today, and I am not really in the mood either.

However, in the debate over gold, Meghnad, Lord Desai has pitched in his bit. His Sunday column is titled “The Golden Hindustan,” and he says this of the RBI’s decision to buy 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF:

It was India’s gentle way of saying that the dollar was on a downslide and indeed needed a healthy devaluation in the interests of the global economy. But it also gave notice to the G20 and the IMF that if the global economy was to wean itself off the dollar as the sole key currency, there was no viable substitute in sight except for gold.

I also found an excellent feature story on Rediff.com listing out the world’s largest gold hoards. India is now 11th on the list. Do click right through to India, where they say:

Analysts feel that it is a very smart move as by buying IMF gold, New Delhi is shoring up its bullion reserves and slowly trying to hedge its bets on the US dollar which has been losing value against other currencies.

So much for ET.

Gold Is Our Saviour

It was just the other day that I commented on an editorial in the Economic Times which opined that the Reserve Bank of India’s purchase of 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF was “no big deal.” It was in this editorial that ET called gold a “barbarous metal.”

We are indeed fortunate that LewRockwell.com has published an excellent article today on the RBI’s gold purchase. The article, by Michael S Rozeff, a retired professor of finance, compliments the RBI for buying gold. Indeed, Rozeff goes further – he says that RBI will make profits from such transactions by which it replaces dollars with gold. I quote:

This transaction has a significant meaning that goes well beyond the dollar amounts involved, which are not that large. It means that a major central bank has actually disposed of dollar assets and prefers gold instead. It means that it regarded its dollar holdings as excessive. There are more central banks in the same position. They may do the same. China had been suggested again and again as the potential buyer of the 403 tonnes of gold to be offered by the IMF. India’s purchase was a surprise.

In financial terms, RBI is not simply adjusting its reserve position. It is arbitraging. It has a profit incentive to sell dollars and buy gold.

As I surfed through ET today, I found this Reuters story on central banks and gold, a report that suggests Asian central banks are “wary of rushing into gold.” Let them be as wary as they like, but our RBI has done well to buy gold. It should buy even more. The IMF is selling off another 400 tonnes of gold – and the RBI should bid for this too.

At the core of the matter is the status of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. This is now over. Rozeff puts it well:

There is no run on the dollar, but there is a steady movement away from dollars as a reserve asset in the coffers of central banks. A stroll on the dollar has become a brisk walk on the dollar, and there is a threat that this will become a trot on the dollar.

Oddly enough, it is our sedate RBI that is leading the charge. Rozeff says how RBI will profit from this move:

RBI and other central banks hold dollars whose nominal gold backing is about 15 percent of the FED’s monetary base liabilities (currency plus reserves). RBI sells $1,000 worth of U.S. securities and gets 1 oz. of gold. The $1,000 that it gives up have only $150 worth of gold behind them. RBI profits by $850…. this arbitrage is an economic incentive or force for selling of dollars and buying of gold. RBI has availed itself of this opportunity.

This, while ET calls it “no big deal.” Rozeff is quick to compliment the RBI for its decision, and he points out that the mistake made by central bankers in the past has been to support the US Fed, instead of competing with it:

Many foreign central banks have done the opposite. They sometimes have sold gold. They have usually accumulated dollars in substantial amounts in the form of dollar loans. They have not only not competed with the FED and taken advantage of this arbitrage opportunity, they have gone the other way and supported the FED and the U.S. government by their loans. This was one part of the financial side of government-run economic policies.

So, once again, ET bites the dust, and the Ganja Flag flies high.

And talking about “high” reminds me: Hey! Where’s my smoke? Hey! Joint Secretary, roll me a big joint, will you?

For All Our Tribal Chiefs

While looking at our “tribals” revolting, it might be pertinent to point out that the white people also began as tribes. Further, their tribes were never at peace with one another; wars were perpetual. Ancient English kings, who were nothing but warlords, could never defeat the Danes in battle, and it is on record that these kings had to pay taxes to the Danes – what was called “danegeld.”

Scotland, in the time of Adam Smith (5 June 1723 – 17 July 1790), exhibited many traces of tribal culture. There is the curious incident of a visitor from France dropping by at Glasgow to meet Smith. The visitor was invited by Smith to a music concert. However, when 100 bagpipers started playing their martial tunes, this visitor could scarcely comprehend that this too was “music.” Note that the tunes were martial: the first part was a “call to arms”; the second, the music of the battlefield; and the final part was the wailing over the dead. This is their history, this is their culture, this is their music. The story of Scotland is but a story of battles, battles and more battles.

How did these tribes get civilized? Simple, by preferring to live via The Market. No more looting and plunder. Unfortunately, the gora has still not been able to shake off his tribalism – both “welfare” and “warfare” are atavistic ideas. The welfare is like the chief doling out portions of the kill; and warfare is what gora tribals expect from their king.

It was Adam Smith who informed the people of the then world that civilization and progress lie in The Free Market. Further, that all moral virtues are also inculcated in this market. Smith despised war, the “game of kings.”

Note that Scotland in Smith’s time was extremely backward, way behind England. But the enlightenment of the English happened because of a pucca Scot. Adam Smith complained that he learnt nothing in his 7 years at Oxford. And this view was seconded by many other great men, including Gibbon and Bentham. When the Honourable East India Company set up their Haileybury College to train recruits to the Indian civil services, the greatest emphasis was given to teaching the principles of classical political economy – and the great guru was none other than the long-deceased Adam Smith. The EIC, of course, had to set up this college only because neither Oxford nor Cambridge taught this subject then.

I have no doubt that India’s backward people, including all our indigenous tribes, can speedily proceed on the path of progress and civilization – exactly as the Scots did. Today, on LRC, there is an excellent article by Professor Walter Williams on the decline in education in the USSA. The West is in decline on several fronts – all because of their tribalism. Civilization and free markets are where people become Individuals, where group culture does not exist. It is unfortunate that all our “State politics” focuses on groups – as in the case of caste. This, too, is atavistic. Modernity, free markets, cities and civilization – these are for Individuals. It is here that the need for a warlord is dispensed with. No Big Chief at all. Just a friendly Mayor.

Our poor, oppressed tribals, long treated as anthropological specimens, need to hear this other message – which is all about Liberty, Justice, Peace, Trade, Cities and all the good things of life. They need this enlightenment. As with the Scots in the 18th century, I am confident that these people can progress to great heights. Perhaps, some of them might try and emulate Adam Smith and become a great economist. And I wish them luck.

Reads Like A Constitutional Crisis

Thank you, PTI, for an excellent report on our great prime minister Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi’s speech at the opening of a conference of tribal development ministers; and thank you, Mint, for publishing this in full. At a time when our poor forest dwellers are up in revolt, this speech is a historic document.

Before getting into what Chacha said, let us look at what appears at the bottom of this report, which is what the tribal affairs minister said:

Tribal affairs minister Kantilal Bhuria, in his address, said there was need for bringing amendment in forest laws and pointed that “innocent” tribals are now taking route to the naxalism as hundreds of them are being “harrassed” under the Forest Act.

Now, let us look at what Chacha said towards the middle of his address:

Singh said administrative machinery in some of such areas is “either weak or virtually non-existent”, the “heavy hand of criminal justice system has become a source of harassment and exploitation” and over the years, a large number of cases have been registered against the tribals…

THIS IS A PREDATORY STATE

Q. E. D.

Chacha goes on to damn his Chacha State further:

“It is clear that we need to reflect on how to improve the laws and mechanisms through which we provide compensation to displaced tribals. The tribals must benefit from the projects for which they have been displaced,” the Prime Minister said.

This is their misuse of “eminent domain.” This is “legal plunder.” This is barbarism – the disrespect for Property. This is Predation.

Our great Chacha, of course, will try and plug in his State “education” at every opportunity, so here is what he said on that:

“The lack of quality education and vocational opportunities for tribals need immediate attention.”

Actually, they can distil mahua; they can brew handia; they can also play their jungle drums; they can dance. Inside the Palamau National Park, now in Jharkhand, an important centre of the Maoist-Naxal uprising, where I lived in 1982, I found that tribal communities were shunning State schools, preferring missionary schools. This applied not only to primary schools, but also to “adult education.”

At this point, let us look at how Chacha began his great speech:

In a clear message to Maoists, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said no sustained economic activity is possible under the shadow of gun in tribal areas where decades of alienation is taking a “dangerous” turn.

He said there has been a “systemic failure” in giving tribals a stake in the modern economic processes and emphasised that the “systematic exploitation and social and economic abuse of our tribal communities can no longer be tolerated.”

Now, do you see why there is a mass uprising in our jungles? They have taken to arms to battle the lawless guns of The Chacha State. It is our The State that is “lawless.” Not these tribals.

Chacha speaks of a solution: The “distribution of land titles.” My suggestion is that our tribals set up local governments and issue themselves their own land titles that are freely transferable and, without which, no land transfers are possible. They must issue themselves gun licenses as well.

Anyway, gotta end this post now. My new-found chillum-yaar, Bablu Das, is coming with some local ganja for me. He is a most peculiar fellow, this Bablu, a property dealer without property. Yes, he survives by arranging rentals and sales of titled properties in Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi. But he lives in Tughlaqabad, in a typical New Delhi slum, where he, and millions like him, possess no property titles.

All these dispossessed people of our cities must join cause with the Maoists and Naxalites from our deep and dark jungles – and the great cause must be Property.

And Liberty.

Magna Carta time, folks.

Respect & Disrespect - for Gold

Today, Mint has published my column titled “The Case for Private Money.” This must be read along with my previous column, titled “A Return to the Gold Standard.”

I am proudly on the side of gold and private money, totally opposed to the fiat currency system. And gold is in the news today: Our central banksters have just bought 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF.

Now, the editors of the Economic Times declaim that this is “no big deal.” The language used by ET is also revealing. They actually use the word “barbaric” to describe gold – â la their evil mentor, John Maynard Keynes. These eminent editors write that in the past:

“…the barbaric metal commanded a respect quite out of proportion to either its intrinsic value or the return it yielded as an asset class….”

Frankly, I sincerely doubt whether anyone who invested in gold over the last 30 years of a global pure fiat money system has lost money. Gold was some $30 an ounce when Nixon de-linked the dollar from gold, in the early 70s, thereby putting the entire world on a purely fiat money system. Gold has shot over $1000 an ounce now. This is why ordinary common people “respect” gold. These editors worship State-issued papers with Gandhi’s photu on them.

They doubt whether gold possesses “intrinsic value.” Actually, nothing has “intrinsic value,” not even gold. All “value” lies in the minds of valuers. Value is “subjective.” The common people who are buying gold “respect” the value of gold. What, indeed, is respect? The first article of mine ET ever published was titled “Respect Must Be Earned.”

The editors of ET then go on to say that, since the dollar is in terminal decline, and the bulk of RBI’s “reserves” are held in US dollars:

“…gold is a poor alternative. The RBI should, instead, be buying other currencies like, say, the euro or maybe even the Chinese yuan.”

They use the word “currencies.” I would prefer to use the term “fiat papers” – all this funny munny.

Yet, it is their concluding remarks that really take the cake, and the cake-shop as well:

"Total central bank holdings of gold is around 30,000 tonnes, the same level as 60 years ago, over which period world output has grown some 13 times. The relative decline of gold in the affairs of the world, we hope, will have some influence on Indians’ collective craving for gold.”

The editors have just unwittingly disclosed figures that reveal, to me at least, how much funny money has been pumped into each and every national economy by central "banksters," with no link to gold, which was the money people freely chose to use throughout the then world, right upto the time when central banks arose in every nation. Indeed, humanity has chosen gold as money throughout the history of civilization. The classical liberal / libertarian / Austrian conception of The Market is individualistic in its methodology – so people like me merely attempt to predict what these individuals would choose as money. We do not say, “Impose gold as money.” Fiat money is IMPOSED upon us. These editors worship central banks - who wield vast coercive powers.

Further, they are lying baldly when they say that there has been “a relative decline of gold in the affairs of the world.” Their very own newspaper reports almost every day how much gold our common people are buying. Just the other day I read in an ET report that rural post offices in Karnataka have taken to selling gold coins, and business is booming. Indeed, right as we speak, gold prices have surged to over $1000 per ounce. People, and more and more people, are choosing gold. Gold ETFs are doing brisk business. In the “natural order” of a free market society, it is obvious gold would become the chosen money. Our worthy editors have their minds set upon an “artificial order,” where coercion replaces co-operation – and wee, the sheeple are "fleeced" as well.

Why do so many people fall prey to such erroneous thinking? In my view, the critical error in ET’s thinking lies in the false concept of “national economy.” It is this dangerously false idea that is the guiding philosophy of central state control over an economy. In short, it is the guiding philosophy of those who support tyrannies. Never fall prey to this error, my dear reader.

In the world of free markets, there is no “national economy.” Rather, there are millions and millions of “individual economies,” of which each and every individual is the Sole Proprietor. Just as I am the Sole Proprietor of The Antidote Blog. All these individual economies are "private economies."

We are all sailing our little boats on a mighty wide and placid lake, and each is the Captain of his own boat. We are all “minding our own business.” We are “trying to keep the customer satisfied.” And all we do is “row, row, row our boats, gently down the stream.” Merrily, of course.

On Mining, Property, IAS and HEICS

Mining – this is the sector in the news today, with two editorials on it. The context is political corruption and subversion of democracy. I recommend both: Mint, here; and the Express, here.

What I would like to add to these learned opinions is something my father once told me. He said, “Son, in the USA if there is oil or gold under your property, then this belongs to you and you are rich. But here in India everything belongs to The State.”

True, isn’t it? The millionaires of Texas made their millions by striking oil. They had a California Gold Rush.

About mineral resources, a wise man once told me that it was perhaps the greatest curse to ever befall a people: Look at Africa, with vast quantities of mineral wealth. And look at Hong Kong and Singapore, without any such wealth at all.

As the Express editorial rightly points out, mining is a “primary sector” activity, there along with agriculture. There are many books and ballads about the hard life in mining towns. In our own country, mining towns are the most miserable of towns. As with agriculture, so with mining, it would be preferable if other economic activities are allowed to flourish, and less and less people work in the primary sector. All along the Western Ghats, including in sunny Goa, iron ore mining rules the roost. Entire mountainsides, which could be great real estate, are being exported. Every port there is engaged in iron ore exports – export everything, import nothing: the Kamal D Nutt theory of international trade.

What is the solution? Once again, it is Property. This is a function of the local civilian administration. If they apply this Principle to their work, they can solve the problem. As Leon Louw once told me, “Even if your Constitution does not protect property, the government can.”

In other words, the civil administration has some “work” to do. In British times, the average district was three or four times larger than they are today. And there were no satellite maps. The basic task of land administration appeared to them as daunting as “mapping the waves of the great oceans.” But they did it. Mason’s great book has pictures of their rough, hand-drawn maps. There is another picture of a district officer, smoking his pipe under a tree, talking to the villagers, and sorting out land disputes on the spot: “finding” the Law, not “making” it. Those days, a good district officer was known by the wear on the seat of his pants. He spent much of his time on horseback. The entire mess in India today is only because socialists don’t believe in the Principle of Property. And they have destroyed the entire civilian administration with foolish ideas.

I have done my bit to inform India’s elite administrators of their grave philosophical errors. It must be more than a decade since I first lectured in their Mussoorie academy, accompanied by Parth Shah of the Centre for Civil Society and Yazad Jal of the Association of Youth for a Better India. I lectured there again some years later, this time accompanied by Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute. I smoked a joint or two with Yaduvendra Mathur, then deputy director of the academy. I met Wajahat Habibullah, then director, and we presented him with many of our books. I personally told Habibullah, a Doon School product, that it was ridiculous to have a Marxist professor of economics at this academy after a decade of “liberalization.” Teach them Liberalism, I told him. And it must be 10 years since I appeared on the Barkha Dutt show along with very senior IAS men – Abid Hussain, N Vittal and others. I told them on prime time television that nonsense is being taught in the IAS academy.

How were British administrators taught? It was not too long after the Wealth of Nations came out that the Honourable East India Company established their college at Haileybury to train recruits. The biggest component of their training was Classical Liberal Political Economy – then not taught in either Oxford or Cambridge. Haileybury was in operation right through to 1857, after which the Crown took over India. Hundreds of great HEICS officers were produced by Haileybury. The acronym stands for Honourable East India Company Service, the precursors of the ICS. It is they who "founded" British administration in India.

One IAS man, though, told me something wise: “We are knowledge-proof,” he said.

“Bravo,” I replied.

A Tribute To John Wilkes

“It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times” – these are the words Dickens employed to describe the French Revolution. Such times are indeed great in the manner in which oppressive regimes are overthrown, but they are often horrible as well. The French people have had many revolutions and installed many republics – and they are still unfree. India too fought for the goal of “freedom” from British rule. And this revolution too did not succeed.

In such difficult times, what I would like to offer my reader is a glimpse of history, for they say “history is a guide.” And history offers us an excellent example of an English politician, a phenomenal libertarian: John Wilkes (1725-1797). It is because of Wilkes that the press is now free. They should erect his statue on Fleet Street. Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg should be renamed after John Wilkes. People indeed named their children after him, as in the case of John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin. The libertarian publishers Fox & Wilkes keep his name alive.

What needs to be emphasized about John Wilkes is his great love for Freedom. He was a man who lived life to the hilt. He was a known “rake,” having fathered half-a-dozen illegitimate children. The club he founded was the Hellfire Club – and their headquarters were in a monastery, of all places. This was on the banks of the Thames, and finds mention in Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat. This wonderful book also contains an excellent description of the signing of the Magna Carta – a peaceful revolution. But we were discussing John Wilkes.

As a politician, John Wilkes was primarily a journalist. It is his journalism, which included some pornography, that won him the support of the people; in particular, the London mob. In those happy days, there were no policemen in London. And Wilkes had the mob on his side. The King hated him, referring to him always as “that devil Wilkes.” Even the House of Commons hated him, and expelled him many times. It is only because of John Wilkes that the proceedings of parliament are now reported to the people. Till then, they were kept secret. It is indeed noteworthy that John Wilkes crowned his political career by becoming Lord Mayor of London, second only to The King, and therefore far, far above parliament.

John Wilkes also did not do it for the money. It is recorded that his great political battles ruined him financially. It is also recorded that he happily spent whatever he had living up to the standards befitting London’s Lord Mayor, which has never been an “office of profit.” I strongly suspect that Wilkes did all he did merely for the fuck of it; for fun. Politics, to English people then, was the great game. And he played this great game extremely well.

It should also be noted that John Wilkes enjoyed mob support in a City. Posters saying "Wilkes & Liberty" were put up all over London. History says that when he was elected Lord Mayor, jubiliant crowds unhitched the horses from his grand carriage and dragged it through the City streets.

Why did I suddenly think of John Wilkes? B’coz this meaningless Indian “democracy” does not offer us a single real “politician.” I am writing this from South Delhi, where Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi lost the election. In India, what we call “politics” is not the great civilizing activity that the great philosophers of ancient Greece wrote about. This particular word, “politics,” born in ancient Greece, is floating around the world completely devoid of its original meaning. There is another word that has suffered a similar fate: the word “villain,” which originally meant a simple farmhand, an agricultural worker, a serf, one who lived in a “vill,” a villager. As in the case of “politics,” so too in the case of “villain,” words have acquired sinister meanings on their own.

John Wilkes was no villain. He was a great hero of his times. And he was a City Politician. Think about that…