After all the Anna Hazare nonsense, we now have the Baba Ramdev bull. I'd love to see these jokers try a "thirst strike."
Anyway, all through this tamasha, two people have been completely silent - chacha manmohan and his boss, sonia. They are silent because neither of them is a politician. Indeed, political power has been transferred, in these difficult times, to completely unelected groups: one, the Anna Hazare-Baba Ramdev-Lokpal lot; and two, the National Advisory Committee (NAC) that instructs madam soniaji.
Why is no one talking of Irom Sharmila from Manipur? The "wiki" on her begins thus:
Irom Chanu Sharmila (born March 14, 1972), also known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur" or "Menghaobi" ("the fair one") is a civil rights activist, political activist, journalist and poet from the Indian state of Manipur. Since 2 November 2000, she has been on hunger strike to demand that the Indian government repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), which she blames for violence in Manipur and other parts of India's northeast. Having refused food and water for more than ten years, she has been called "the world's longest hunger striker".
Let us end Tyranny - and Corruption will end automatically. Let us end State Power. Let us begin with Manipur - and get the Army into their barracks and Manipuri ganja into our chillums.
Why is the corporate media so hung up on Baba Ramdev? Why is no one mentioning Irom Sharmila?
However, from the corporate media, one voice has definitely, and finally, defected - and that is Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of the Indian Express. His column today says the UPA-2 government is "politically vanquished." He writes:
...never in India’s history has a government with a genuine majority and a strong political core surrendered the state’s sovereign constitutional authority and responsibility as this one has. What is even more dangerous, they have ceded this to just about five characters in fancy dress, in shades of white to saffron, representing Left, Right and the Centre.
Gupta mentions the NAC as an unconstitutional body. And his description of these welfarist jokers as "darbari jholawalas" is apt. He demolishes the NAC with these words on the latest legislation they have drafted, on "communal violence":
This is not a team of modern-day Ambedkars, but mostly of IAS drop-outs and retirees who approach law-making with the “wisdom” of sincere undergrads. You have any doubts, take a look at the draft of the incredibly stupid Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill 2011 (www.nac.nic.in/pdf/pctvb_amended.pdf). A Modi or Togadia can see in a minute the wonderful opportunity it presents them. It is totally violative of the states’ rights, is subversive of the Constitution, and will never pass parliamentary or judicial scrutiny. But it will polarise people on a communal basis just when they seem to be getting over that sad past. This bill will not pass. But if the UPA continues to push it, it is guaranteed to polarise the Hindu vote and give the BJP a shot at power that any appeals to Ram Lalla cannot in 2014. This could indeed become Sonia Gandhi’s Shah Bano moment.
Such clowns cannot govern this vast country. On their "welfarism," there is another column in the Express worth reading, this time by the noted economist Surjit Bhalla, which begins thus:
The expansion of poverty programmes in India has been spearheaded by Sonia Gandhi and her National Advisory Council (NAC). She cannot ignore the fact that by expanding old-fashioned anti-poverty schemes, she is also increasing old-fashioned “in the name of the poor” corruption.
Indeed, not just corruption, the NAC's welfarism is the root cause of the high inflation we are currently suffering from. As Ludwig von Mises noted:
The Welfare State with its methods of easy money, credit expansion and undisguised inflation continually takes bites out of all claims payable in units of the nation's legal tender.
The darbari jholawalas of the NAC and the Anna-Hazare, Baba Ramdev & Co. hunger strikers are not going to do India any good. The country needs a new political direction - and that is Capitalism. Socialism, welfarism and interventionism all have to go. To get there requires nothing less than a New Constitution. The time has come for all patriotic Indians to call for a Second Republic.
And will all those who are reading this please raise a very loud shout for Irom Sharmila and Manipur.
Leftist ideology has been rejected in West Bengal, Kerela and other parts of India.
ReplyDeleteBut it is now making a shadowy entry into the political space through the likes of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev.
Both these leaders are socialists and Luddites. They will take us back to the dark ages, of Nehruvian Socialism.
The organisations led by Baba Ramdev, and Anna Hazare cannot win a single seat in elections anywhere in the country. They will win less than 5% vote.
And yet we are giving them so much focus in the media. I feel fed up, frustrated at the foolishness of my fellow Indians.
All crusades are senseless and are led by tyrants. So we should always be suspicious of all crusaders.
Hear hear! Enough of this silliness, a chillum full of Manipuri ganja for all!
ReplyDelete