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.