On the bus to Halebid, Belur and back, I also looked closely at the agriculture here, around Hassan, Karnataka. The soil is rich, dark brown, and very fertile. Water is abundant. Greenery abounds. I saw many fields of tall, healthy maize, but I also saw a host of cash crops - there were banana orchards, coconut groves, patches of vegetables, chillies, and many crops that I could not recognize. There were many fields of flowers - sunflowers as well as marigolds.
I have travelled the area extensively some years ago, lecturing in many small towns, and I had begun a travelogue called Malnad: Where Money Grows On Trees. Farmers here are extermely prosperous, growing cash crops like coffee, pepper, arecanut (supari), vanilla, styvia and what not. The agriculture around Hassan is not that rich, but it is doing quite well. There are no signs of distress.
Thus, everything is hunky-dory here. Pakistan is far away; there are no terrorists or Naxalites; agriculture is prosperous; the land is beautiful with many historical treasures; the weather is extremely pleasant; the people are enterprising and hard-working; there is complete internal peace - but even here they have made a total mess of things. Thus, this is a "scene of a crime" - a crime committed by The State. This is not even "benevolent neglect" - the colonial policy that succeeded so well in British Hong Kong. This is plain and simple "dereliction of duty."
The bus to Belur went down BM Road for quite a while and then, at a fork without any traffic safety arrangements whatsoever, took a sharp right. It must be difficult to cross the road here. A small township has grown up around this meeting of roads, for this is how urbanization always proceeds - along transport connections like rivers and roads, or the sea - but the civilian administration seems totally devoid of this basic knowledge. I do not think they possess the hard knowledge required to design safe roads, signage, crossings and the like. I watch the traffic constable from my window armed with a walkie-talkie and a whistle. He cannot do much when the system has failed. The police seem unable to handle their basic role in peacetime - which is to preserve order on the streets. We are all horribly unsafe in India. This essential knowledge must be imported.
Of course, I was looking around at the beautiful scenery with the eye of a Property man. I saw at least 5 big lakes around which there was no property, and many hills too. A grand casino might look fine on a hill, what? In Goa, they don't give terra firma to casinos, and they must operate on ships in the water. Hassan can compete. Kathmandu gets loads of Indian tourists because of its casinos.
However, the planners in New Delhi have no vision of real estate development. I saw many hills despoiled by rows of huge windmills. These are no solution to the severe power crisis Hassan and the whole of Karnataka faces. They are an example of State subsidy and destruction of real estate value. They symbolise the folly of centralizing power and authority. These windmills and the space centre in Hassan are signs of "science" under socialism. Indeed, under socialists there is always science; there is never any "technology" - which requires The Market. We had IITs right through the bad old days of socialist autarky, but we never had phones, and we never had cars. Think about that - and how Capitalism has improved life in recent years. Raise a toast to Capitalism.
I suggest more. Many years ago, Liberty Institute organized a "Walk for Capitalism" around Delhi's Connaught Place. I participated enthusiastically, shouting "Khulla Bazaar" and "Mukt Vyapaar" and "Jai Vyapari", carrying a placard saying "Taxation is Theft." The walk was a great success and widely reported. I hope you folks reading this try to organize such walks for capitalism in your own city and town. We must inform our The State that most ordinary folks believe in Capitalism.
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