When Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi became our Prime Minister, the mass media hailed him as a "liberal." After all, they said, he was finance minister when Narasimha Rao's big "liberalization" happened. Today, it is time to re-think this naive assessment. A "liberal" believes in freedom from the State; he believes in the market economy; he would like to cut down the bloated Indian socialist State. Chacha has done the very opposite.
Indeed, Chacha has only sought to compensate for Rao's liberalization - which bore such handsome results - by INCREASING the role of the State in other areas. A clear case is his emphasis on "education." He is actually not interested in the lamp of learning lighting up Indian minds. Rather, his basic intent is to see that the propagandists of socialism who occupy sinecures in State-funded institutions have a field day ruining Indian intellects. His motive is evil.
The same applies to his fetish for funding ditch-diggers in rural India. It is a ploy to siphon our money to useless bureaucRATS. Any true blue "liberal" would have trimmed their "rural development" budgets and forced them to do real "work" - like property titling. Chacha is merely pumping our money into the spoils system. He is increasing the role of the State by increasing its share of public wealth.
Thus, Chacha has worked very hard to increase taxation. The Value Added Tax is just another way of sucking our blood. He has imposed an "education tax." There is now a "goods and services tax" coming. All this increases the funds at the disposal of the State. Under a true liberal, the opposite would happen. Citizens would get to keep more of their money to save and invest; the State would be cut down and forced to manage with less.
This verdict also applies to Chacha's sudden rush for "civilian" nuclear power which is anything but civilian, being under State-ownership. It increases the role of the State in power generation - something any liberal would seek to avoid, if not abolish altogether. India needs electricity badly - from the private sector. Chacha is against this idea. He is an unabashed agent of the State.
I hate Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi with every fibre of my being.
I totally agree with every statement you make. Manmohan Singh may have pretended to liberalize the markets, but a lot of that can be taken in the historical context of that period. In today's world, he and his madam Sonia have increased the State's role in almost everything. They continue to get voted into power; that surprises me; maybe most Indians do not know better.
ReplyDeleteIts about bloody time someone called what this Indian system is all about.
ReplyDeleteIts textbook Fascism. Replace the single leader with the Goongress party.
In Animal Farm the leaders of the revolt become the new despots. Power corrupts. It's the law of nature.
ReplyDeletePeople cross over to the dark side in order to retain their grip on power - The very power bestowed on them to dismantle evil. Name 1 person who has managed to not do so. That would make them altruistic.
Look at Alan Greenspan. I used to worship our Man(mohan) and Sing(h) his praises before. But I realize now that a PhD in Economics and winning the "Adam Smith" prize [how ridiculous that "John Maynard Keynes" won it in 1909] does not a good economist make. Common Sense does.
Dear Narasimha Rao,
Please come back from the grave. You might have been corrupt but at least you were better than today's politicians. You wanted to prosper at the expense of other politicians. An enemy's enemy is usually a friend. Come back please. Go on make a few crores. That's ok. No one is perfect. At least you gave us a taste of economic freedom.
Sin Seriously,
A Classical Economist