Cronies Cannot Rescue Our The State From Collapse

In yesterday's post, I rubbished an article in the ToI by Rahul Bajaj that concluded thus:

In the final analysis, India's growth process under a democratic government is a sustainable, humane and just path to development. 

I also quoted his praise of our village panchayats. This, while his own city, Poona, is a shambles.

Today, I would like to place before my reader an article in Tehelka on the State-owned nuclear power plant due to come up in Jaitapur, on the Konkan coast just north of Goa, that has also received environmental clearances from Nude Elly. The article says that elected personnel of 10 village panchayats in the area have resigned in protest against this nuclear power plant. In all, 90 democratically elected local representatives have resigned. They also boycotted a meeting called by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. They are demanding a local referendum on the project. They want that their lands, which have been "forcibly acquired," should be returned to them. The really troubling fact is that our The State is responding with police repression:

"The locals are being treated as hardened criminals," alleges Adwait Pednekar of the Konkan Bachao Samiti. "Externment orders and Section 37(3), (1), 144 (unlawful assembly) have been constantly promulgated in the area to prevent exercise of democratic rights.

Is this the "sustainable, humane and just path to development" Bajaj is hallucinating about? Is this "local self-government"? Bajaj is an MP. And this is Maharashtra, where he lives, and where his factories are located. In my book, this is nothing but tyranny. This is the Predatory State.

In yesterday's post, I also wrote about an "Open Letter to India's Leaders" signed by 14 of India's economic elites. Today, I am pleased to provide a link to that letter, which has been published in Outlook. After reading the letter, I am in full agreement with Shekhar Gupta's assessment of it that I quoted yesterday: it is full of "platitudes." In other words, like the Rahul Bajaj article, this too is nothing but pure bull.

To begin with, this Group of 14 say they "are concerned with the general deterioration in the overall value system of the nation, but have abiding belief and commitment in India’s potential and prospects as a successful democracy." In the next paragraph, they add:

What we are deeply worried about is not to allow India’s huge growth potential and poverty alleviation challenges to be diluted or digressed from, and which would be a great loss, especially to the poor and the dispossessed.

What are these "poverty alleviation challenges"? More welfare? NREGA and all that bull? Purchasing votes with more funny money? In yesterday's post I discussed the doublespeak of one of the signatories, a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Bimal Jalan. There are two other bankers in this Group of 14 - N Vaghul and Deepak Parekh. The "great loss to the poor and the dispossessed" is inflation. And they are being "dispossessed" because they have no right to Property - which is "possession." What humbug!

The Group of 14 cronies then list out their suggestions: More regulatory bodies - and the language is fantastic: "creation of genuinely independent and constitutionally constituted regulatory bodies, manned by persons who are judicially trained in the concerned field." Is the RBI "independent"? Is the Supreme Court? What about the "apolitical" IAS or IPS? What about regulatory bodies in telecom, civil aviation and environment? They are calling for a "new dirigisme."This means more bureaucracy, more red tape, more government - and hence, more corruption. But cronies never favour Liberty and laissez faire - for obvious reasons.

The letter then lists out their major concerns: corruption, environment, a "governance deficit" (not the Budget deficit, mind you) - and their only suggestion is Ombudsmen (Lok Ayuktas).

As with Rahul Bajaj, this Group of 14 never utter the words Liberty and Property. They never mention the idea of urban self-government - which is where we Indians are really getting screwed. They never mention roads. They never use the word "privatisation" - which alone can deliver us electricity.

As I said yesterday, these are all "cronies." They are engaging public opinion in order to hoodwink the public, to cover up the real deficit, to offer false solutions, and to evade mentioning the real ones. As three of them are bankers, they ought to know that Property solves the "mystery of Capital" - for the poor. Parekh, in fact, is a "housing finance" banker. Just a few days ago, I wrote about how the Chief Economist of Parekh's HDFC Bank was hoodwinking public opinion on inflation, by failing to mention money supply increases are the only cause.

These cronies, these accomplices in tyranny and plunder, live in cloudcuckooland. This becomes obvious when you read this sentence in the opening paragraph of their Open Letter:

We are a fraction of a very large number of Indians who, we believe, share our hopes and aspirations but have no means to channel their views and opinions in India’s public domain.

Thank goodness for blogs, and the Internet, Tweeter, Facebook and all the rest. We no longer have to "channel" our opinions via the corporate media.

The real "hopes and aspirations" of this Group of 14 cronies lie in our The State - in funny money and credit creation. In protectionism. In legal plunder of all kinds. In regulatory bodies staffed by the bureaucracy.

Further, their phony concern for the "poor and the dispossessed" is all about "poverty alleviation" - which is welfare that will be administered by IAS cronies. One of the 14 is Anu Aga of Thermax, who is a member of the National Advisory Council attached to Sonia Gandhi that is pressing the case for "universal food security." All these are intended to increase the size of the Budget - and "empower" the bureaucracy with tonnes of funny money. The political intention is to purchase the votes of the poor.

The article by Rahul Bajaj as well as this Open Letter show signs of desperation; but the fact remains that these "platitudes" - as Shekhar Gupta called them - are not going to impress anyone. Poor farmers all over the country have woken up to their rights to Property - especially after Singur and Nadigram. And now Jaitapur will explode on the face of The State - just you wait and see. 

Inflation is harsh reality too. I was immensely delighted to read a piece ridiculing montek's take that inflation is caused by prosperity. This liar's pants are verily on fire. Hooray!

The undeniable fact is that our The State is tottering. Manmohan has fallen off his high perch. Sonia and Rahul are zeroes. The BJP is an ugly joke. The Communists are being slaughtered - at least in Bengal. The crony media stands exposed. Army generals and even Supreme Court judges have been found corrupt. There have been too many corruption scandals in too short a time.

What can we ordinary people do? Well, a fellow interested in activism called on me a few days ago, and I gave him some ideas. I will discuss these in my post of tomorrow. Stay tuned.