Our Central State Police Minister has been quoted as follows in this news report:
Home Minister P Chidambaram today said that India lives in the "most difficult neighbourhood" in the world as terrorism infrastructure in Pakistan has flourished "as an instrument of state policy".
Well, we exported Maoism to Nepal - and we also supported the LTTE in its time. Indira Gandhi created Bhindranwale - and Sikh terrorism. So we do not have a clean image either. In Chattisgarh, the Salwa Judum is State Terror.
The police minister, of course, made some noises about peace:
Given the complexity of our region, our government has a comprehensive neighbourhood strategy that is based on political engagement, especially with Pakistan, support for political stability, assistance for economic development and improved connectivity and market access for our neighbours to the Indian economy. A stable, peaceful and prosperous neighbourhood is vital for the security of the people of India.
All I would like to point out is that the above ideas do not sit well with our governing ideologies: socialism and economic nationalism. It is because we do not believe in The Market that we have ourselves created this horrible neighbourhood. Even till today, 20 years since "liberalisation" began - and has shown such impressive results - classical liberal / libertarian political parties are disallowed in Indian politics. We are WTO-wreckers - not free traders. How, then, can our neighbourhood be peaceful?
As Ludwig von Mises wrote:
Civilization is an achievement of the bourgeois spirit, not of the spirit of conquest. Those barbarian peoples who did not substitute working for plundering disappeared from the historical scene. Civilisation is the product of leisure - and the peace of mind that only the division of labour can bring about. Society is but people trading goods and services amongst each other.
Our The State has always chosen autarky as national policy. We isolated ourselves from the rest of the world, including our neighbours. This is "economic nationalism" - a policy that seeks to aid domestic businessmen by inflicting harm upon foreigners.
It is economic nationalism in Europe that resulted in two World Wars. It is precisely for this reason that laissez faire is best - because the State is not involved in business, does not protect anyone, and practices free trade and free immigration with all. This is the path we must take.
This is OUR neighbourhood. It is called the INDIAN sub-continent. We must set the trend here - and export the ideology of peace, trade, free movement of people, goods and capital, and non-interference in internal affairs. So far, for 60 long years, we have been doing the very opposite.
Our police minister said the above quoted words during a meeting with the police minister of the USSA, Janet Napolitano. The USSA, in either case, is no longer "the land of the free"; she is now The Land of the Imprisoned, with the highest number of prisoners per capita in the world. Do read this article by Anthony Gregory of the Independent Institute, titled "Abolish the Police."Further, the USSA is one nation that can rightly be called "war-mongering." Much of their war-mongering is occurring in OUR neighbourhood - and our The State is in cohorts with them.
But the USSA is fortunate to have Ron Paul - and here is Walter Block predicting that Ron might win the 2012 elections. If Ron Paul - a libertarian well versed in Austrian Economics - is in the White House, he might just set things right in OUR neighbourhood - by pulling American troops out of Af-Pak, and, more importantly, by exporting his libertarian ideology.
Yes, it is ideology that matters most. Without a coherent political and economic ideology, we are lost. As indeed we are. Our ministers make some noises - sometimes this way, sometimes that - but the same old shit continues unabated.
I conclude with what someone just back from Kabul told me:
When there is no Market Economy, what can a young fellow do but pick up a gun and join one plundering gang or the other?
Think about it.
Ideology matters.
And we libertarians are not allowed into Indian politics because of our ideology. It must be socialism, says the Supreme Court. In which case, wars will continue, internal and external.
Think about it.
Great post. More and more I am coming to believe that politicians and governments the world-over are truly losing their grip on reality, so crazed and self-righteous are they with the sense of their own power. And the higher up they go, the more they slip away from reality - the reality being that the people of this world are tired of their war mongering, dirty politics, and the games they play across the landscape of the world. Worse, they are so caught up in their bizarre world of oneupmanship that their instruments of terror - like the CIA, ISI and RAW - believe they have a legitimate right to do the horrifying things they do. These politicians and their secret agencies actually believe in an insane way that they have ulimate and sacred power to right this world. But, all that ordinary people want is only to live in a better and more peaceful world.
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