And it’s Bob Marley on my mind once again:
How many rivers do we have to cross,
Before we can talk to the boss…
First, let’s take Chacha. He has issued some loose talk today about committing $1 trillion (Rs45,60,000 crores) to infrastructure in the 12th Five Year Plan.
Hey! I’ve had just enough of central planning. We want The Market to take over where the planners have failed.
And “infrastructure” is a loose word: better to speak separately of roads, electricity, telecom, water, sewage etc. Here, roads remain the critical problem. All else can be immediately privatized. Look at the telecom revolution thanks to The Market.
It is noteworthy that, commenting on this statement from Chacha, the editors of Mint have shown him the finger.
Get real, they say.
So get real, Chacha.
Why couldn’t Chacha spend more on roads this year? Because his Budget has committed Rs40,100 crores to NREGA. There is barely Rs20,000 crores left over for roads after that.
And what does his boss, Madamji, have to say about the future of “welfare”? Well, the news has it that her big idea is the Food Security Bill that is likely to come up before Parliament this week, by which some Rs82,100 crores will be spent on feeding the poor.
Meanwhile, the poor are struggling to survive the Total Chacha State’s Predatory Bureaucracy: here is an article by Simon Harding on the license-permit raj in autorickshaws in New Delhi that makes for horrifying reading. These poor people, like all our poor people, do not need food or jobs from the government. They need Liberty – and roads. Harding is from the World Entrepreneur Society.
Yesterday, I had quoted Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776) on how “society” and “government” are two different things, and how some people, even in his day, had confused the two. This is what happened in India in 1947, and is continuing today.
Society has to feed itself, through production and exchange, in The Free Market.
As far as government is concerned, Paine said, it is an expense, not a source of income: every man “finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest” and thus, Paine concludes, “security is the true design and end of government.”
But here, even in New Delhi, the State Police (and the entire Bureaucracy) are Predatory. The people look after themselves, through private security. In the meantime, the Maoists are raising hell – and these socialist-welfarist “leaders” from Laputa are talking about giving jobs to the poor and food to the hungry.
What can I say, except repeat the advice I gave some weeks back:
Bring Chacha Down!
Phone your MP to vote against the Union Budget – say “No” to the Finance Bill.
This nonsense cannot be allowed to continue.
Had the movement to thwart the healthcare bill in USA succeeded, it would have given lot of new ideas to libertarians in India about how to fight against a predatory government.
ReplyDeleteBut the pro market forces in USA have failed in keeping their country free. Now USA is firmly and surely treading the path that will leads Sovietisation of the country. Unemployment is going to rise and the economic situation will get worse. Those who have supported this bill will realize that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. This cliché holds true for India and for US as well.
Atlas Shrugged, the book that Ayn Rand wrote, might as well come true. Lights go out and trains stop moving….
I was watching the debate with great interest, but in the end I am disappointed at the stupidity with which the so called free market guys have acted in USA.
I mean, there are few Republicans who are actually opposing the Healthcare bill for the “right” reasons. A vast majority of them are doing so for the wrong reasons. There are fundamentalist jerks who are against abortion, who oppose the healthcare bill. There are woolly headed traditionalists, who say it is against the American tradition. Then there are those who oppose the bill because they claim it is against the teachings of the Bible – whatever that means.
There are very few voices that I can hear in America that actually oppose the bill because “healthcare” cannot be a govt. mandated right in a free country. You have to take care of your own healthcare from what you earn. You have no right to ask rest of your country to fund your sojourn to the luxury hospital.
The same atrocious situation continues to plague India. The BJP opposes most of the bills that Congress govt. brings out, but it does so for the wrong reasons. That is why BJP fails in playing the role of effective opposition.
Bottom line is that if we throw out this govt. what is the alternative? There is no alternative in sight. The BJP is going to prove worse than Congress and the regional parties are too deranged to rule this country. The BJP is full of fundamentalists who tend to frighten ordinary Indians.
The Libertarians in India should found a new political party. It is time to walk the talk and take the INITIATIVE. Every great movement has a small beginning…
@Anoop: Classical liberals and libertarians in India are denied the freedom to set up political parties and compete for votes vide the Representation of People Act which says all "recognized" parties must swear by the Constitution - and this Constitution says we are a "socialist" country.
ReplyDeleteSince the democratic path is ruled out, we must look for other ways.
Anyway, if the Congress is brought down, whoever replaces them will surely learn a lesson and spend money on the right things.
Also read my earlier post:
http://sauvik-antidote.blogspot.com/2010/02/for-gold-guns-secession-and-liberty.html
Yes, I know that. In fact, I learned about this fact many years ago after reading your article on the unfairness of Indian democracy that allows only socialist parties to contest elections.
ReplyDeleteIf I am not mistaken, your article I am referring to was published in The Times of India, many years ago.
What I meant in my last comment is that we need more alternative political parites. Because the BJP leaders sound too strident, obsolete and frustrated. They can't inspire people to vote for them.
BJP was certainly much better in managing econ affairs and spending money - and its DNA is not anti free market - than CONgress will ever be. But, it has its own baggage. Also, our media is laregely anti-BJP and pro-Family (or more fearful of wrath of Family than supposedly "fascist" BJP). We had Swatantra Party but it was ahead of its time and did not build organisation at ground. Best bet is BJP if they can give thier obsessions with "Others". Will that happen? Very unilkely. So, we are stuck with CONgress, perhaps in even stronger position = more bad days for the rest fo us.
ReplyDelete