Telengana State - Or A Free Vizag?

Telengana is in the news - and the news says that chacha manmohan and his head honchos in Nude Elly are "fearing violence." Violence? People are fighting - and even dying - for a State? The news adds that these are not just ordinary people - these are mainly "students."

Small states have been a complete failure in India. Jharkhand, Chattisgargh and Uttarakhand are just three recent examples.The North-East was divided into many small states, and there are those who want still more - like Bodoland.

The case of Delhi becoming a full-fledged State is recent memory - and it brought no benefits to the city.

And if you take a look at our tiniest State - Pondicherry - you will find the full apparatus of statehood: a Lieutenant-Governor; a Chief Minister and Cabinet, with a House of Representatives; a Chief Secretary and an entire Secretariat with many Secretaries; and so on. The territory of Pondicherry is so small that if you drive in any direction for even half-an-hour you will cross the border into Tamil Nadu. Despite this huge State, the City of Pondicherry is a mess. And if you walk along Beach Road sometime, you will find the reason - the disused office of the city Mayor, dating back to French times.

There is a lesson there - that the smaller the State, the bigger the government. I once met a libertarian from Macedonia and he was lamenting how, after they had a "free State," thousands of citizens lined up to become generals, admirals, and ambassadors. It is often the case that those who fight for a State end up in the service of the same State. Or perhaps that is what they were angling for anyway. This is surely true of the generation of CONgressmen who "fought for freedom" - but ended up creating a huge State, which they themselves faithfully served. Thus, freedom was ultimately lost. So, I am not too inspired by the violent battle for a State of Telengana. I say, fight for freedom - not for a State.

If students in Andhra Pradesh really want to fight for something worthwhile, I suggest that they fight to make their port City of Vishakapatnam into a free-trading and self-governing city. In which case, they can seek their survival in The Market - and not look for State employment.

There is an excellent article on Vishakapatnam in the latest issue of Outlook that is worth reading, if only because it tells of the futility of relying on the largesse of the Central State for economic betterment. The Central State started off by building a steel plant there - but nothing much happened. Since then they have built a whole pile of SEZs - and still nothing much has happened. Of course, villagers have lost their lands; bureaucrats have built industrial estates that lie unoccupied; and even the real estate builders are not very optimistic any more.

I found this sentence worth quoting:

“Visakhapatnam has a beautiful future,” explains a senior government official, S. Satyanarayana, uncannily echoing the words of the British dam builder, General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton, who prepared the earliest design for the Visakhapatnam port nearly 200 years ago, declaring the little fishing town with its natural harbour as “the city of the future”.

Where is the future, dear students? Is the future in The State? Or is the future in The Market?

Today, our students are all "rebels without a cause." The true cause worth fighting for is Liberty - the freedom to trade by land and sea.

Since Hyderabad is land-locked, Vizag has much greater potential - and this potential can best be realised as a Free Port. A Free City. A city with a very small local government - and a big huge free market in which every citizen can thrive.