Forever Third World Class

Our environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, is in the news for commenting that our Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are not "world class." Of course, they are most definitely not. The IITs have been there since the 50s - and never could they produce a good car or even a scooter. 

With socialism, all you have is "science" - never "technology." The latter requires Capital, and Capitalism, to come about. James Watt needed Matthew Boulton. (James Watt also needed Adam Smith, but that's another story.)

The highest number of science PhDs per capita was in the former Soviet Union - and they didn't have too much technology either, as with the Lada. Today, if we enjoy many "world class" goods and services, these are entirely because of MNCs - not IITs.

In those days of hard-core socialism, MNCs were considered evil - and one of the IIMs (IIM-Bangalore) specialised in training managers for State-owned companies. Even today, you never find an IIT or IIM professor writing a brief newspaper column to say something about something. One IIT-Delhi professor, Dinesh Mohan, designed and built the Bus Rapid Transit Corridor in Nude Elly - a huge disaster.

Jairam Ramesh's comment was made in a particular context: he was advocating the setting up of a "world class institute" to study marine biodiversity, and he wanted that to be a partnership between Reliance and our The State. As though the Tata Institute of Social Science and the Birla Institute of Technology are world class!

What I would like to tell Jairam Ramesh is that everything about India is "Third World Class" - because our The State is Third World Class itself. How about world class cities and towns? Or world class highways? Not a chance! How about a world class currency? - GOLD.

Of course, Jairam Ramesh is a CONgressman - beholdened to the widow of their late leader. This is a party of blood worshippers - they worship Nehru's blood - and that is Third World Class "politics." 

The latest news emanating from Madam Sonia is that they are readying the "right to food." Our The State is going to borrow and print money in order to buy the votes of "the poor." Never mind that the prices of everything else will rise, the precious Capital and savings of all will be eroded, and a whole lot of Capital will be needlessly consumed - to the detriment of the poor. The Predatory State feigning to be a Welfare State is what Keynesianism is all about, for it was Keynes who designed it "as a means of cheating the working class."

In the old days, and perhaps even now, the IIMs gave preference to IIT graduates. I finally discovered why after reading Friedrich Hayek's The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason. It becomes clear that the powers-that-be wanted to produce business managers with a fatal "social engineering" (or "positivist") mindset. That is, our Third World Class Socialist State did not desire to "educate" us; rather, they used their powers of force and coercion to control education rigidly and thereby "miseducate" us. It is heartening that today some brave souls are calling for total privatisation of education.

A world class India? No chance of us getting there with Socialism and the Welfare State. And all the cronies. Our only chance of getting there is with laissez faire Capitalism, Private Property, Liberty, and Sound Money. And Private Law.

Further, a decentralised administration with mayors running each city and town. 

The panchayati raj vision - which is combined with "right to food" and "right to work" - is itself a Third World Class vision. They see only peasants, not world citizens.

As far as Jairam Ramesh is concerned, I do think we ought to tell him to get the hell out of Jaitapur. We don't need a Third World Class Socialist State attempting to run a nuclear power facility in the Konkan, where one accident could wipe out the Alfonso mango and put an end to Goan tourism. Privatise power. And respect the Property of others. 

To respect others' properties is civilised behaviour - truly world class. To take over others' properties using the coercive force of The State is barbaric: not world class at all. 

You CONgress barbarians remain what you are: Third World Class.