It's Rahul Gandhi vs. Private Property

Rahul Gandhi has courted arrest in order to show his “allegiance with the protesting masses” – as the Express put it, in their editorial, and since some BJP leaders courted arrest too, the editors commented:

Indeed, there was no let-up in the scramble this week to be taken into custody as a certificate of allegiance with protesting masses.

The ToI was equally clear that Rahul’s theatrics are just theatrics. Their editorial put the point across quite bluntly:

On its part, the Congress must ask itself if parachute-dropping Rahul into trouble spots every other day to back readymade causes is good - or even convincing - policy. People would rather hear what the youth leader has to say on finding effective institutional solutions to land acquisition-linked turmoil. That counts far more than a random visit to Orissa's Niyamgiri to pledge support to tribals one day, and slipping into UP's Bhatta Parsaul village to back farmers on another. 

There is only One Solution to all this nonsense: A Constitution that makes Private Property inviolable by all, including The State.

This means Capitalism – and not Socialism. This is, of course, why not a single politician from any party is suggesting this. Their game plan is something else: and that is, to foment trouble in order to get a “better deal” for the protestors from a government that is not theirs. Yet, they do not want the powers of the State Executive to be diluted even one bit. So that when they win the next elections, the same will happen – and they will be the ones laughing all the way to the bank.

Socialism, with its contempt for Private Property is not just “anti-social”; it is also “anti-rational”; it is “anti-economic”; and “anti-order.” Socialism is “planned chaos” – as both Ludwig von Mises and our own great dissenter, Professor BR Shenoy, have pointed out. Socialism is "anti-logic." It goes against the way human beings think.


{Read Peter Bauer's tribute to BR Shenoy: a must-read for all patriotic and anti-socialist Indians.}

Why should there be any Land Acquisition Act? Why should anyone have to give up his Property “for the greater common good.” Indeed, if the common good is ignored, yet if the “private benefits” of a project are substantial, there is no reason why the entrepreneur cannot lure proprietors of land to part with their properties at a fancy price. If the State stayed out of the way, no one would have to resort to public protests over the prices at which parcels of land change hands – just as there are no public protests over any other market prices. There would be perfect order. Not chaos. But with Socialism, there is chaos every day: Singur, Nandigram, Jaitapur, Meerut, Noida et. al. And the way things are going, with all this political theatre of the absurd, chaos will forever be with us here in India.

To reinforce this point, here is a blast from the past:

The following was written by the philosopher Strabo around the year 40 AD:

As for the constitution of Crete which is described by Ephorus, it might suffice to tell its most important provisions. The lawgiver, he says, seems to take it for granted that Liberty is the State’s highest good and for this reason alone makes Property belong specifically to those who acquire it, whereas in conditions of slavery everything belongs to the rulers and not to the ruled.

Note: Ephorus lived in the 4^th century BC, and he was describing Crete as it had been for many centuries earlier.

There is NOTHING valid in Socialist doctrines – neither is their theory valid, nor does history reveal any successful civilisation in which Private Property did not exist.

In our own country, violation of Private Property led to nationalisation, regulation, legislation and what not – and all this produced chaos. If we do not put an end to “legal plunder,” chaos will continue. Forever.


Also note that these very editors had loudly praised Mayawati's legislation on land acquisition as "equitable and progressive" - based on the "Haryana model" - and observe that socialist legislation such as this does not produce the desired political and social order. It produces only chaos.


Recommended reading: Hans-Hermann Hoppe's essay on "The State or a Private-Law Society," with focused attention on the portion, which is right at the beginning, wherein he reveals how Private Property is the only solution to public order.