We Don't Need Jairam Ramesh

As a libertarian, I have been a long-time critic of the Ministry of Environment & Forests. Our forests, of course, are disappearing under their control; and as for the people who live in these forests, the denizens of this ministry are their sworn enemies - otherwise there would be no Maoists and Naxalites. As far as "environmental clearances" are concerned, I have always viewed them as a new form of the "license-permit raj" - and I fail to see what good they can do when all our cities and towns are dirty and full of disease.

My views have only been confirmed during my recent years in Goa - where the poor people on the coastline possess no rights to their ancestral Property because of environmental legislation from Nude Elly: the Coastal Zone Regulation Act. There is constant erosion on the shoreline - no one can stop it - and all that this nasty piece of legislation does is empower a corrupt bureaucracy. Whereas fisherfolk who "own" beachside property all along our 2500-mile coastline could have been rich beyond belief, this evil anti-property legislation keeps them poor - permanently. And Jairam Ramesh, our current central minister of environment and forests is on record lambasting real estate development on the Goa coastline. Meanwhile, they allow mining all along the coast. And Jairam Ramesh has personally approved of the Jaitapur nuclear power plant on the Konkan Coast just north of Goa - on which I have just commented.

I wonder what would have become of him in Florida or California. But then Ramesh is not really a "politician" - if you read what Wikipedia reveals about him you will discover that he is just another backroom boy of the CONgress party, a wheeler-dealer, and only a Rajya Sabha member of Parliament. He represents "interests" - not "people."

I was particularly horrified when Jairam Ramesh declared SUV owners "criminals" the other day. In my book, those who design and build our roads are the real criminals - and SUVs are a lifeline for all who can afford them. Would you like to go back to the bad old days when all you could buy for off-roading was a Mahindra jeep with three gears?

Jairam Ramesh is playing to the environmental gallery - and this is a great big global gallery. This is a New Religion that worships Nature and hates Man. In India, they are made up of city-dwellers. We are extremely fortunate that our rural masses and forest-dwellers don't buy this bull.

Jairam Ramesh is very much in the news these days because of the "climate change" nonsense going on in Cancun, Mexico. Quite frankly, I don't trust weather forecasts of even the day ahead - so what to speak of 100 years hence. Anyway, it has already been proved beyond doubt that the "science" supporting Al Gore and RK Pachauri is totally false. To me, these global "clubs" of governments are always anti-people, and must be distrusted - like the World Bank or the IMF. If their ideas are put into effect, our poor people will never be able to avail of modern energy. Throughout India, women can be seen carrying firewood. Throughout India, one of the biggest health hazards facing poor people is smoke inhaled from indoor wood-burning stoves. In Cancun, they are not solving the energy needs of poor people today. That, in any case, cannot be accomplished by a club of governments. This can only be accomplished by competing private energy suppliers in a free market. In Cancun, they are busy trying to solve "climate problems" of the very distant future - and these, in my view, are all "imaginary problems."

Fortunately, I am not alone in this opinion. I am joined by Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, who has penned this powerful article against the global, governmental, environmental agenda - the people who are now meeting in Cancun. But he does better than that - for he equates them with the "save the tiger" freaks. Barun argues that the tiger can only be saved by The Market - and the right to Property. In the same vein, he argues that the real energy problems of poor people in poor nations can only be solved by The Market - and not by the politicians and bureaucrats meeting in Cancun. His conclusion is apt, and to the point:

It is the economics of development that should determine the climate of politics, rather than the other way round. It is only with economic development that environmental quality will improve as well.

This is so very true! The Soviet Union was the world's biggest environmental disaster. Rich countries boast great environmental quality - clean cities and towns, well looked after forests, clean lakes and rivers, great beaches (with fancy real estate on them). The air in London is cleaner than the air in Nude Elly. So, do read Barun's great piece.

We don't need the ministry of environment and forests in Nude Elly, and its minister, Jairam Ramesh, who is supported by a bunch of bureaucrats and all the crazies from Pachauri's TERI.

We need economic development - and that can only come from The Market.

Wikileaks, Radialeaks, And Journalism

Before discussing Wikileaks, let's be clear about one thing - our The State spies on us. Here is a news report on the central State's admission that 6000 phones and 600 email IDs are being "intercepted." These are authorised by the central State's home secretary - and the report says he religiously spends 30 minutes every day signing such authorisations, so the list is growing daily. The report adds that every state of this (supposed) federation does the same.

Yet, chaos, confusion and corruption rule the land. Because you cannot govern with "information" alone. You also need sound "knowledge" - which is theoretical and philosophical. It is here that our socialists have failed, most miserably. This is "knowledge failure."

This is also true of the USSA. The CIA has dossiers on anyone and everyone - but "intelligence" on WMDs in Iraq was wrong. The USSA is getting screwed in both Iraq as well as Afghanistan - and, since the US dollar is heading for collapse, this is further proof of the fact that government must be based on sound theoretical principles. If these are faulty, no "intelligence" - which is mere "information" - can help.

Let us now turn to Wikileaks. I think it is a very good thing that some brave private citizens are spying on The State - particularly the US State. This is precisely the sort of Spy vs. Spy we all needed. In my book, no State should possess deep, dark secrets - and all private people should be possessed of their privacy. Politics and government must be open and transparent. We must proceed in this direction. I hope Julian Assange and Wikileaks accomplish this. May they inspire many more to be like them. In India, Tehelka first made waves with its "sting operations" on politicians. Such efforts need to be multiplied.

Let us not forget that House of Commons debates were once kept secret. It was the great John Wilkes who made their publication mandatory (1771).

The matter of the Niira Radia tapes is somewhat different - for in this case the conversations were recorded and leaked by the Income Tax Department. However, the net result - a shake up in journalism and an expose of corporate lobbying - are entirely welcome. Ratan Tata has asked for Supreme Court intervention to ensure that recordings of his conversations with his lobbyist are not published on the grounds of "privacy" - but if these conversations pertain to "public affairs" like the appointment of a minister, I think they ought to be made public.

As far as the effect of the Radia tapes on Indian journalism is concerned, I maintain that we need more television channels, more radio stations, more newspapers, magazines and blogs. We need more freedom of the press - so that Competition sorts out the bad apples from the good. It is worrying that many regional language TV channels are party organs. Licensing of TV and radio must end.

NDTV (and the Barkha Dutt show) certainly need competition. In all this political hullabaloo her weekly show discussed reality television last Sunday, and corporate philanthropy last night, thereby ignoring real, "hot" issues, deliberately. I also watched a programme in which her ethics were questioned by other senior journalists - and many of them turned out to be closely associated with the government and its politics. Dilip Padgaonkar is an official "interlocutor" on Kashmir; Sanjay Baru was Chacha Manmohan's press advisor; Swapan Dasgupta is a BJP man. This is proof that there is enough space for truly independent journalism.

So let us be inspired by Julian Assange and Wikipedia. That's the way to go.

Finally, let me share two items I found on LewRockwell.com concerning Wikileaks:

First, a report in the Guardian that covers leaked cables which indicate that both the CIA as well as the US diplomatic corps have been pressurising foreign governments to toe the Washington line on climate change.

Second, a very pertinent quote from Murray Rothbard's The Ethics of Liberty:

In some areas, a radical distinction between private persons and government officials is acknowledged in existing law and opinion. Thus, a private individual’s ‘right to privacy’ or right to keep silent does not and should not apply to government officials, whose records and operations should be open to public knowledge and evaluation. There are two democratic arguments for denying the right to privacy to government officials, which, while not strictly libertarian, are valuable as far as they go: namely (1) that in a democracy, the public can only decide on public issues and vote for public officials if they have complete knowledge of government operations; and (2) that since the taxpayers pay the bill for government, they should have the right to know what government is doing. The libertarian argument would add that, since government is an aggressor organization against the rights and persons of its citizens, then full disclosure of its operations is at least one right that its subjects might wrest from the State, and which they may be able to use to resist or whittle down State power.

Do read The Ethics of Liberty. It is a book every citizen who values Liberty should read, and I especially recommend it to students of Law. You can download a free PDF here.

Chacha Speaks - And I React

Prime minister Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi has spoken - to an audience in Malaysia - unveiling a six-point programme for a "new stage in India's development." An editorial in the Indian Express has faithfully reproduced these six points:

First: rapid growth, to create wealth and fund ambitious welfare programmes.

Second: regional and social balance.

Third: a focus on a modern, knowledge-based economy.

Fourth: environmental sustainability.

Fifth: cooperation with our neighbours to our mutual benefit.

And sixth: to retain the framework of our plural and secular democracy, a goal and a value in its own right.

I examine each of these in turn:

First - rapid growth, to create wealth and fund ambitious welfare programmes.

The two objectives are contradictory. If wealth is created - and then our The State taxes it away for "welfare," all is consumed, nothing is left for investment, and so the engine will come to a spluttering halt. Chacha has already derailed growth for the ambitions of welfarists - and the proof lies in our high inflation. Perhaps Chacha has not heard of what they are doing in Britain today.

What is needed for economic growth? Well, I recently answered that question in a post. I established the fact that The State has NO ROLE in the processes that cause economic growth. I concluded saying: "Liberty! Property! Contract! That is all it takes to make a country grow." I then added another post on the importance of roads. In this speech in Malaysia, Chacha lamented the sorry state of India's "infrastructure." But he himself is spending all our money on welfare - not roads.

Second - regional and social balance.

Dunno what these mean. All that must "balance" are the scales of Justice - and here in socialist India, where there is no Property, these do NOT balance. "Regional balance" is poppycock. All our regions are diversely gifted - not only by Nature, but also in terms of human capital. The old idea of "balanced regional development" espoused by our central planners has never worked. It is a goal as unattainable as "economic equality." As far as "social balance" is concerned, I repeat myself - all that is needed for "balance" in a vast society of numberless individuals is that the scales of Justice must balance, and that requires Property to be inviolable.

Third - a focus on a modern, knowledge-based economy.

There is no need for us as a nation to undervalue ancient and traditional knowledge - like the mahua that our tribals happily distil. In the developed nations of the West, a lot of traditional knowledge thrives - as in wine and cheese making. Our common people possess all kinds of old knowledge and skills - as in the case of carpenters. As far as "modern knowledge" is concerned, the best we can do for ourselves is to unilaterally free trade. Import the knowledge developed overseas and use it - as with our modern mobile phones and cars. No IIT could produce either. Incidentally, in this speech, Chacha quoted Keynes - and that puts a big question mark on his own knowledge.

Fourth - environmental sustainability.

Chacha is a great "climate change" alarmist - another phony "knowledge" he has espoused. Methinks it would be preferable if our The State would focus on the "sustainability" of their budget expenditures - their welfare programmes. It is these that are "consuming Capital" - and are totally "unsustainable."

Fifth - co-operation with our neighbours to our mutual benefit.

I agree with that - but then, why stop at our neighbours? Why not co-operate with all the nations of the world? There is much more we can buy from Europe than Bangladesh! Unilateral free trade - the only way.

Sixth - to retain the value of our plural and secular democracy.

Funny thing, ain't it - that Chacha has never won a Lok Sabha election himself. Is this a "plural" democracy when classical liberals and libertarians are not allowed to form political parties of their own? Is this a "secular" democracy when the likes of the BJP are given free rein? No, siree - this is a centralized, socialist, communalist sham democracy.

One word to describe Chacha's six-point programme: Mendacity.

Songs From A Room

Began Sunday with this great travelogue in Mint on Marrakesh, titled “Souk for the soul.” It's the world's oldest MARKET!

My mind immediately raced to that old CSNY song, “Marrakesh Express”:

Blowing smoke-rings from the corners of my ma-ma-ma-ma-mouth…

That was the theme song of the hippies, white folk who loved the Noble Herb. Some came to Goa directly from Woodstock, and never returned. You sometimes come across these nice folk in these parts.

Anyway, I didn’t have “Marrakesh Express” in my poor CD collection, but so what? I put on Marley, who loved the Noble Herb too. Marley was not black. He was mulatto. Some white genes there. And he sang in English. That’s why he became a Third World Superstar. Makes absolute sense. Peter, Lord Bauer, often said that those underdeveloped nations that never had any contact with white folk were worse off. Goa had 500 years of the Portuguese.

So Mr. Marley started to play his stuff:

It’s a natural mystic blowing through the air,
If you listen carefully now you will hear,
This could be the first trumpet,
Might as well be the last,
Many more will have to suffer,
Many more will have to die,
Don’t ask me why….

Then he went on to “Rat Race”:

There’s a horse race,
There’s a dog race,
There’s a human race,
But this is a rat race.

It is here he makes the famous shout:

Rasta don’t work for no CIA.

That’s me.

And then on to “Exodus: Movement of Jah People”:

Wipe away transgressions,
Set your captives free.

A movement of Jah people got me thinking about Chacha in New Delhi. And of Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man”:

You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, “Who is that man?”
You try so hard
But you don’t understand
Just what you’ll say
When you get home
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

I found these lines especially appropriate:

You have many contacts
Among the lumberjacks
To get you facts
When someone attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect
Anyway they already expect you
To just give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations

You’ve been with the professors
And they’ve all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers and crooks
You’ve been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books
You’re very well read
It’s well known
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

Yeah. Something’s happening out there all right. I get all the signs. Wonder if Chacha gets them too. Or is he headed for the fate of that Last Mogul:

Poor old Shah Alam
He rules from Delhi to Palam.

Palam is the village where Delhi’s airport is located. Lots of property without titles in Palam.

But who wants Delhi? Recall Babur, when Humayun brought him Ibrahim Lodi’s severed head. Two of his top generals immediately revolted, saying Delhi was too hot. They deserted ship and rode off back to Kabul and Kandahar. And summer is approaching. The Brits always vacated Delhi in summer, taking their The State to cool Simla. Chacha and Pachauri prefer air-conditioning. And then they talk of global warming. Funny old world.

So, if I don’t want Delhi, where do I go?

Actually, Harare sounds like a great opportunity for conquest. They surely need a sound money man there. And Harare is the city in the world with the maximum number of golf courses. Great city, I am told. So we could paraphrase Marley, who supported independence for Zimbabwe:

We’re gonna chase that crazy Mugabe outta town…

What about Goa? Well, this is no Rasta place. The Noble Herb is smoked here in hiding, and sold in hiding. The mafia rules. There are no freedom fighters. And no freedom songs either. You don’t find a single shack on Palolem Beach, where Rizla papers sell by the bucketload, playing Rasta music. No Marley T-shirts are sported. My other serious option is Jamaica, where they could do with a Professor of Rastanomics. Ha ha.

Anyway, my Marathi manoos girlfriend in Goa complains if I have another beer.

I thought women complain if you have another woman.

But see how the mighty have fallen.

Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

It is Saturday again, and we villagers in southern Goa must travel to our nearest town-market for the week’s provisions, especially vegetables. There, my friend, who is Home Minister and conducts all the purchases (I am just the coolie), said something fantastic, something that must be read alongside Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi’s blustering over “food inflation” that is in the news today.

My Home Minister said that all these past 5 years that we have been here, she never spent more than 150 rupees on vegetables. Today, she had barely bought much – the bag was still quite light on my bony shoulders – and 250 rupees had already been blown away. She further added that, all these years, she had to carry a whole lot of coins to conduct her purchases, but now no longer needed to do so, for nothing sold for less than a 10-rupee note.

The economist in me saw this as a clear sign of the effects of inflation. That is, inflation is not the general price rise. Rather, inflation is the increase in money supply, which causes the general price rise. What did Chacha say?

As per this news report, Chacha called all his Bhateeja chief ministers to a conference in New Delhi and told them to take “necessary steps.” Are these bhateejas the cause of inflation? Certainly not! Chacha is merely passing the devalued buck. The chief minister of Goa can hardly be blamed for the high prices of vegetables here – and anyway these vegetables come from Belgaum, in Karnataka. It is noteworthy that, at the conference, the chief minister of Karnataka alleged that the real blame lies with the central State. He is dead right.

In the meantime, there is another report here of a statement made by the head of Chacha’s economic advisory council, C Rangarajan, an IAS baboon who climbed the greasy pole to head the central bank. This dude says that the “stimulus package,” by which money supply was hugely increased, should not be withdrawn; and if so, only gradually. What is this multilaterally co-ordinated “stimulus package”?

As Ludwig von Mises made clear long, long ago, global monetary co-ordination is nothing but concerted efforts by all central banks to pump more and more credit into the world economy, thereby inflating the world. In the present case, Chacha, also a central banker, increased money supply in India, in tandem with other central banksters, in order to shore up the US dollar, which would have nosedived if they had not done so. This is multilateralism in monetary matters. That is why I recently advocated unilateralism as the path to sound money – which means the end of inflation.

In his magnum opus, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, in the section on "International Monetary Cooperation," the last section in Chapter XVII on "Indirect Exchange," Mises writes:

What governments call international monetary cooperation is concerted action for the sake of credit expansion. They have learned that credit expansion, when limited to one country only, results in an external drain. They believe that it is only the external drain that frustrates their plans of lowering the rate of interest and thus of creating an everlasting boom. If all governments were to cooperate in their expansionist policies, they think, they could remove this obstacle. What is required is an international bank issuing fiduciary media which are dealt with as money-substitutes by all people in all countries.

[The fully searchable PDF file of Human Action can be found here. For this quote, go to page 476.]

Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi, and his crony, Rangarajan, are not economists. They are inflationists. They are “banksters” (as in “gangsters”). They should be identified as such. They are the biggest enemies of the poor Indian common man. They are friends of Ben Bernanke.

Real economists believe in the "economization" of scarce resources, in promoting savings, in increasing investment. These inflationists believe in eroding savings, causing malinvestments, destroying economic calculation and causing "capital consumption." They are the cause of all the "de-civilization" we see around us.

We are fortunate that there is even worse news about Chacha mortgaging the interests of the poor Indian to foreign powers. He has just supported the legitimacy of RK Pachauri, TERI, and IPCC. The poor Indian needs cheap energy – not this “sustainable development” and “climate change” bullshit.

So Chacha is a liar on many counts. I hope the nation sees through his deceptions.

Give No Chance To UID

Back in sunny Goa again, and it’s great to be out of freezing Delhi.

Today’s lead editorial in Mint is a paean to Chacha’s unique identity card project to create biometric ID cards for a billion people – but I find it difficult to agree with the editors’ view on this.

They conclude that this ID project is the only way by which direct cash transfers can be given to the poor:

“The truth is that given India’s grating inequalities direct cash transfers are the only way out. The successful execution of UID is key to that end.”

Oh! The poor. The poor. If only everyone would just leave the poor alone.

In reality, in all our cities and towns, the poor are EXPLOITED by the functionaries of The Chacha State. They never receive anything; rather, they are coerced into coughing up their surpluses to Chacha’s corrupt bhateejas (bribes, in other words). Indeed, if one were to hear their prayers, they only ask to be left alone. They want NOTHING from The Chacha State, not even cheap credit. They just want to be left free to earn their keep in our urban markets. We must heed this prayer. They must be granted Liberty.

And they need titles to their urban and rural properties. Millions are stuck in rural poverty because they have no titles to their lands, and so must occupy and guard them personally. The landless who migrate to cities for better opportunities fare no better when it comes to clear titles to their urban dwellings. While I was in New Delhi, the papers reported that Chacha was demolishing slums – in this bitter cold.

My talks with Bablu Das, “property dealer without property,” and his neighbours revealed that they possess all kinds of identity and address proofs. They have ration cards, voter ID cards, electricity and gas connections – but no titles. It is titles they need – not another ID card. This UID project is in the interests of The Chacha State and its State Police. Ultimately it is not in the interests of the poor.

The editors mention what is wrong with our “social welfare” programmes these days:

“Today there are well off persons who are part of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. State governments, that actually implement most such schemes, simply have no wherewithal to monitor them. Various departments and agencies of these governments are handed money and it then disappears. The truth only surfaces years, if not decades, later in the reports of the public accounts committees or those of the state auditor generals. The poor remain what they always have been—poor. When the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi said the poor don’t even get 15 paise of every rupee spent on them, this is what he meant.”

I would say CLOSE DOWN ALL THESE WASTEFUL EXPENDITURES.

Invest all the money in roads – capital assets from which all can benefit. And then give the civilian administration just one task – property titles.

Say “No” to the UID.

That said, the main article in Mint today is also noteworthy – Manish Sabharwal’s call for an “eradication of India’s green jobs.” I recommend this read.

On the same subject, my reader is also recommended this interview with Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, in which he says that combating poverty is more important for poor countries than combating climate change.

Yeah. Bugger green jobs. Bugger climate change. Tackle poverty. This requires Economic Freedom, roads and urbanisation, and property titles.

Say no to the UID, which will only benefit the State Police (and sundry IT companies who are Chacha’s latest chamchas).

Our Hideous Monstrosity

Most of my contemporaries think that all is well with India, what with The Benevolent Socialist-Democratic Chacha State ruling the roost. For them, this post is a wake up call.

These are all from the news of just today:

First, the dastardly attack on sadhus (Hindoo holy men) in Mumbai, allegedly by MNS goons. Here is the news report. There is also a short video.

This shows something is very wrong with India’s “opposition politics.” They are only a darker shade of black.

What is the central State’s police minister doing in the meantime?

This news report says he has met with police and administrative heads of 5 Bhateeja States: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar and Maharashtra. It adds that he has promised them 50,000 additional central troops to help contain the Maoist-Naxalite insurgency.

Now, 50,000 is a big number. Add to that central forces in Kashmir, Manipur etc. and the figure will quadruple for sure. Obama has only promised 30,000 troops for Afghanistan. Imagine Obama sending 50,000 troops to Texas if they decided to secede. Impossible. They would achieve their secession constitutionally. They possess the necessary “politics.” Ron Paul is a Representative from Texas. We do not possess such “politics” – and as to our main “opposition,” they are neither Hindoo nor “political”: they are in the naked search for power, choosing the foulest anti-political (or criminal) means by which to do so.

What is Chacha doing in the meantime?

Of course, true to form, he is all het up about the polar bear. He is worried about global warming and climate change. He thinks his Chacha State in cahoots with all the world’s States, from Uncle Sam to Uncle Sham, can alter the weather for the better – and they should. Of course, our Chacha has already put this bullshit into the school textbooks, thereby “polluting” young minds.

So here is a news report on how Chacha’s High Priest of Climate Change, RK Pachauri of TERI (aisi ki taisi!), is profiting from all this – for, there is money to be made from every State intervention. Chacha is personally and “politically” in favour of this loot – for no reason other than brazen Clientelism. He flew to and from Copenhagen in his State Aircraft to save polar bears while India burned. A latter-day Nero.

And what is happening in Parliament in the meantime? What heady matters are they busy discussing? We know, of course, that Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi has absented himself from most of this winter session. Well, Rediff has this report on what happened in these august houses yesterday:

The Salaries and Allowances of Ministers (Amendment) Bill was on Tuesday approved by the Rajya Sabha without discussion. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 18, also without discussion.

The bill entitles ministers to take along “any number of companions or relatives” by air at the same rates at which traveling allowances were payable to them and their families.

Fly free – the entire clan, plus all the goons.

This is “tax parasitism” – completely contrary to the purpose of parliaments.

These are all goons – just like those that beat up our peacable sadhus in Mumbai.

Predatory State.
Q. E. D.

Chacha's Advisor, And Chacha's Priest

Professor Kaushik Basu of Cornell University has been appointed chief economic advisor to The Chacha State. This probably means the end of his HT columns, which is unfortunate, because he exposes himself in these. I have blogged on his columns twice before, criticizing his Marxist leanings here and his poor understanding of what holds back India’s poor here.

Mint has just published an interview with Basu, but I daresay he leaves out more than he says. One particular answer is worth recording in full. When asked about food price inflation, Basu replied, “This is NOT caused by our monetary or fiscal policies.”

I think we should never trust what the personnel of The Chacha State say. They flatter to deceive.

Anyway, keep this in mind. As they “stimulate” the economy with more and more printed paper money and easy credit, inflation will rise. Then only will it be known what the cause of this deadly disease is – central banksters.

Nothing much else that Basu had to say in this long interview. Read the full text here.

Over now to Ramesh Srivats’ new blog, where he has an excellent post on the new “religion of environmentalism.”

Yeah, they have a “god” – nature.

They have a “priestly class” – the scientists who understand their god perfectly, and can tell its moods.

They have a “fear” of hell breaking out if their priests and their gods are not kept happy.

They have “sacrifices” of current comforts to appease their gods and priests. Srivats goes on and on…

Read the full post here.

Srivats links to two speeches by Michael Crichton, and these make for excellent reading. I particularly liked “Environmentalism as Religion” – here.

So we must conclude that Chacha has chosen his advisors well. In Pachauri he has the High Priest of a new religion. In Basu he has yet another yes-man. How much can he achieve with these? That is the ultimate question.

On Parliament, A Proverb, Carbon, And Some Nonsense

Parliament has once again distinguished itself. The much-hyped “debate” over the report of the Liberhan Commission turned out a farce. BJP MPs disrupted proceedings. The Express editorial is well titled – “Playing House.” Yes, this is all a huge pretence: Uncle Sham.

I was discussing the BJP the other day with Bablu Das, who never progressed in school beyond Class 4, when he uttered a great Bengali proverb. Now, proverbs are always to be found in the conversation of simple, untutored folk like Bablu. It shows their wisdom - a wisdom that has come from the hoary past.

Referring to religious zealots, the bane of the modern world, Bablu said:

Othi bhokti, chorer lokkhon

In other words, excessive demonstration of faith is the sure sign of a thief. Satyajit Dey sent an English equivalent: Too much courtesy, full of craft.

Chew on that and think of all the zealots, both Hindoo as well as Muslim. Their intentions cannot be too good. Give me a man any day who keeps his God to himself, and focuses most on his business; second, on running his household; and third, on enjoying his life – like Bablu himself. Hail fellow, well met.

Next, on the “climate change” front, here is Butler Shaffer advising us to increase our carbon footprints. Indeed, we must. Read this piece and let your kids read it too.

Finally, a reader sent me a link to Jerry Rao’s recent article in the Express. Yes, Rao has written nonsense this time. He champions education – from the same State that peddles lies like “global warming.” And he praises our The State for being slow in building roads. What are “public goods,” Jerry? Is education a public good? Certainly not.

So the wisest man around today is the Class 4 schooled Bablu Das:

Othi bhokti, chorer lokkhon

Keep that in mind.

The Car, The Road, And The Chacha

Our great and glorious leader, Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi, freshly returned from Russia with more nuclear technology, is now off to Copenhagen, to demonstrate his faux concern for the polar bear. All this, while parliament is in session.

In the meantime, one of our leading editors has expressed his skepticism towards the claims of the climate change wallahs: Jug Suraiya’s “A Convenient Lie” takes a huge swipe at Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. LRC too has a great piece against this non-science, here.

However, today I would like to examine Chacha’s role as Central Planner. In this connection, there is news that a 61% jump in car sales occurred this last month, November, as compared to the same month last year. Total car sales are expected to cross 1.8 million units this year. Next year, the figure should cross 2 million, analysts say.

I wonder how many cars sold every year in India when Chacha headed the Planning Commission in the early 80s. If memory serves, before Maruti, barely 20,000 cars sold in India every year. From 20,000 to 20,00,000 is a hundred-fold jump!

But our Chacha and his planners see it not.

They never planned for roads. It was Vajpayee who inaugurated the idea – and the Congress ignored it.

Today, Mint is carrying a report that says that over 30% of road projects are delayed because of various reasons – not land acquisition. The reasons for these delays are:

The disputes have arisen due to reasons like input cost escalation, royalty charges on minerals, entry tax and removal of public utilities on acquired land for road construction.

“Very few cases are stuck over problems relating to land acquisition,” a senior government official is quoted as saying.

So it is NOT land acquisition that is holding up roadwork; it is poor administration. Our The State and its NHAI are to blame.

Meanwhile, Mint also reports:

The government on Tuesday came out with the first batch of supplementary demands for grants in the Lok Sabha seeking to raise public expenditure by an additional Rs25,725 crore during the current fiscal.

This includes "equity infusion" into the “ailing” NACIL. In case you don’t know what NACIL is – it is the holding company for Air India.

Chacha and Co. are blowing up our money on everything except roads.

I have been writing about roads for more than 15 years now. At least I saw it coming. As did most people – except for the deaf, dumb and blind morons on Laputa.

And I wrote on the automobile revolution over a year ago – it was my first column in Mint, and you can read that here.

I also wrote a recent column on the importance of roads, which you can find here.

What more is there for me to say?

Except that the critical function of any “planner” is to think ahead. I give Chacha a Big Zero on this score.

On Climategate... And Chacha-in-Laputa

There are three important articles in the papers today, to which I would like to draw my reader’s attention.

The first two are on the climate-change wallahs. The first is by Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, who decry the carbon tax in an excellent piece in the ToI titled “A thoughtless tax.” This para is crucial:

The administration of carbon tariffs is also a complex task that will raise hackles. For example, in today's interdependent world economy, most production involves importation of components and raw materials from several sources. Calculating the carbon content of a product is therefore as arbitrary as calculating the "local content" and source of origin in implementing preferential trade agreements and eligibility for cheaper market access; and, because it involves imposing tariffs rather than exemptions from tariffs, it will be more contentious and productive of disharmony.

Next on my list is a piece by Bret Stevens in Mint. He is talking street-sense – pointing to where the money is going. He says:

Consider the case of Phil Jones, the director of CRU and the man at the heart of climategate. According to one of the documents leaked from his centre, between 2000 and 2006, Jones was the recipient (or co-recipient) of some $19 million worth of research grants, a sixfold increase over what he’d been awarded in the 1990s.

Why did the money pour in so quickly? Because the climate alarm kept ringing so loudly: The louder the alarm, the greater the sums. And who better to ring it than people like Jones, one of its likeliest beneficiaries?

In other words, this climate change business is a huge hoax, designed to hoodwink the world, impose more taxes and tariffs, divert subsidies to clients – and, of course, fund friendly academics.

In this connection, the final piece I have is on Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi and how he and his MPs are busy bunking our glorious Parliament. The article titled "Losing touch with reality" is by Pankaj Vohra, political editor of the Hindustan Times. He says:

The winter session of Parliament will go down as one of several dubious distinctions. First, Parliament had to be adjourned during question hour last Monday due to lack of quorum and because most of the members whose questions were listed were absent. But, more important, for the second time in this session the Prime Minister chose to go on a foreign visit….

The Prime Minister was away for eight days to the US and the Caribbean in late November and will be in Russia on a three-day visit when the Liberhan Commission report is discussed in the Lok Sabha on Monday and Tuesday. And when he goes to Copenhagen for the climate change meet, this will be the third time he will be absent.

Is this really a “democracy”?

Or is this just a huge, ugly pretence? Just like the global warming / climate change hysteria?

Chacha off to Copenhagen to save the polar bear.

In the meantime, Maoists have blown up a school in Latehar.

And there is much talk of "urban chaos."

Yes, Pankaj Vohra is right - our great and glorious Chacha has "lost touch with reality." He lives in the cloudcuckooland of Laputa.

On Climategate

Rediff is carrying a report on “climategate,” and Aristotle the Geek has an excellent post on the non-science of the Gore-Pachauri tribe, but what I want to say is “I told you so” – exactly 2 years ago.

My column on the Gore-Pachauri Nobel prize began by questioning the “knowledge credentials” of the winners. I then went on to add:

Innumerable failures of such government-inspired 'knowledge' have occurred in the recent past – from the central economic planning of 'scientific socialism', and the centralized management of money, banking and credit of 'Keynesianism', all the way down to the 'intelligence' behind the Iraq War. Even the 'population explosion' scare which led to a UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) lies totally discredited today. From each of these failures of 'government knowledge', we the people have learnt the hard way that the personnel of government are interested not in our welfare, but in their own. The wiser citizen of today should therefore view the claims of an American politician (that too, a statist Democrat) supported by an unwieldy mass of government-sponsored scientists from all the governments of the world with deep scepticism.

I offered an example of “local warming”:

I was cruising along Delhi's Ring Road, and my dashboard meter reported the outside temperature as 39 degrees Celsius. Inevitably, I was stuck in a huge jam. Within minutes, the temperature zoomed to 49 degrees! Local warming? In my book, if India is to reduce her impact on climate change, she needs to knock her transportation system into shape. Our road surfaces need serious attention. Every Indian street, throughout the length and breadth of this huge sub-continent, is a potholed moonscape. This is how we waste fossil fuels. Funny how TERI, the energy NGO whose boss, the scientist RK Pachauri who heads IPCC, never makes any noises about road surfaces, ever. TERI is headquartered in Delhi, with plush, centrally air-conditioned offices in the swank Habitat Centre – a government-promoted piece of real estate, whose first chairman was none other than our current prime minister, Manmohan Singh.

Yeah. Pachauri and Chacha are buddies. That’s why Chacha has skipped parliament to go to Copenhagen.

Now that climategate has occurred, let us pause to reflect on the Gore-Pachauri-Chacha mindset: they think their The State can fix the climate!

Fatal Conceit?

Adam Smith’s famous “three duties of the sovereign” mentions nothing about the role of State as Weather God. I think all our modern-day sovereigns should read this, citizens too. Note that Adam Smith mentions nothing of a role of State in producing money either. Here are those famous words:

According to the system of natural liberty, the sovereign has only three duties to attend to; three duties of great importance, indeed, but plain and intelligible to common understandings: first, the duty of protecting the society from violence and invasion of other independent societies; secondly, the duty of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing an exact administration of justice; and, thirdly, the duty of erecting and maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions which it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals, to erect and maintain; because the profit could never repay the expense to any individual or small number of individuals, though it may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society.

So build roads, Chacha. And don’t try and play Weather God, just as you have assumed the role of Universal Teacher and Universal Employer, and Central Planner and Central Banker as well. Perform your genuine duties. Or get lost.

From Internet Access... To Firewood

An editorial in the Economic Times today makes the serious intellectual error of asking for internet access being included as a “human right.” In étatist France this has just been proposed; and, as I read sometime ago on the LRC blog, this is going to happen in socialist Sweden as well, where they are going to make extremely high speed broadband access a “human right.”

This blog stands for “private law.” In a private law world, you can only have a “right” if someone else has a matching “obligation” – usually through a signed contract. Thus, I have the “right” to occupy the apartment that I have leased because the landlord has the matching “obligation,” as per signed contract, to hand over peaceful possession of his apartment to me.

In the case of “human rights,” no one has any “obligation.” Our recently acquired “right to education” will therefore go the way of all other human rights enacted by the UN, that great big club of States. And note that it is States that are invariably guilty of “human rights violations.” The solution to these violations lies in constitutional law that will strictly limit the powers of The State. But our Constitution of India is an unlimited constitution, and our The Chacha State is thus a Total State. This State is a violator of our rights, our liberties, and our properties. Our editors must call for strict laws on State functioning – the “public law” – instead of adding to State powers and responsibilities by calling for yet another useless human right.

While ET blabbers about our supposed rights to internet access, their competitors, Mint, have published an important article today on the fuelwood industry. The statistics are perhaps nothing more than guesswork, but the situation described is real enough. Even in prosperous Goa, it is quite common to see women carrying firewood on their heads and heading home.

However, let us take comfort from the fact that such scenes were commonplace in the West even as recently as a century or two ago. I have a vivid recollection of a very old souvenir shop I paid custom to in Interlaken, Switzerland, where they were selling carved wooden figurines of Swiss women carrying firewood on their heads.

The only solution is modern forms of energy – electricity, gas, etc. But these are all State monopolies in India, so there is a huge shortage. This demand-supply gap can only be bridged through privatization and free markets. Let the energy industry compete to supply these poor people dependent on firewood with the cheapest energy possible.

Again, on this score, the climate change / global warming wallahs are only talking about subsidizing “clean” energy. Against this nonsense, Cris Lingle makes this important point in his column in Mint today:

Another issue related to global climate talks is that paying for a shift to “clean” energy requires that taxpayers accept lower living standards. This is because nearly all “clean” energy initiatives involve very large subsidies that must be funded by higher taxes. Only by wilfully ignoring the large government-funded payouts can proponents of alternative energies insist they will lead to net gains.

Thus, all that these bozos will bring about is a huge increase in the numbers of tax parasites among us. They must be defeated.

Cris Lingle’s column is full of good news, though. According to his analysis, the talks in Copenhagen will achieve zilch. They will fail. They must.

Climate change, indeed. Also recommended is my old column on all this “hot air.” Complete nonsense.

On Our Urban Disasters

TK Arun’s column in ET today, titled “No more Gurgaons, for climate’s sake,” is above all an admission of the fact that a brand new city like Gurgaon has failed. Arun uses Marxist terminology to describe Gurgaon – great “superstructure” but no infrastructure. Indeed, not even a central business district.

To me, the disaster that is Gurgaon is best appreciated by looking at Sikandarpur, the old village that lies on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road. If you travel on this road from Mehrauli, Sikandarpur occurs shortly after you cross the border into Haryana. In the old days, the M-G Road went straight through Sikandarpur, Now, the road by-passes the village altogether. And our crazy authorities are building the elevated tracks of the Metro Rail right through Sikandarpur. In other words, Sikandarpur Market is now totally inaccessible. This means Sikandarpur has been effectively killed.

Our The State knows nought about cities, and only pretends to develop villages. You see “urban villages” all over south Delhi – Zamrudpur, Adhchini, Katwaria Sarai, Hauz Khas village, Masoodpur, Mehrauli… and so many more. These are all hell-holes today.

Not that the “city” areas are any better. As with Gurgaon, so with south Delhi, all the “posh” residential localities have been laid out by the private real estate firm DLF, with our The State supplying the internal roads. It is these roads that are badly designed. Because of this, even the posh areas of south Delhi are unlivable today. If TK is calling for “no more Gurgaons,” I am calling for no more Delhis.

But urbanization must proceed at full pace. TK says that in the next 15 years, India’s urban population will grow by 200 million. That is, more than 20 per cent of the total population will move from villages to cities. For them, there must be new cities and towns, and good, livable cities and towns.

The greatest challenge India faces today is urbanization. It is therefore astounding that all our central planners continue to have their heads buried in village India. The flip side of "rural development" is nothing but urbanization. A village “develops” when it urbanizes – and becomes a town. This should have happened to Sikandarpur. This should have happened to Zamrudpur, Adhchini, Katwaria Sarai, Hauz Khas village, Masoodpur, Mehrauli… the lot.

Of course, Gurgaon and NOIDA both happened as spillovers from Delhi. TK is worried about energy use and climate change – but such a huge urban agglomeration at such a location as Delhi is in itself a bad idea because of the weather. In Delhi, for 8 months of the year, you need air-conditioning. And for the rest, you need heating. I would prefer smaller cities coming up where the climate is mild. Only this would reduce our energy consumption. If we declare unilateral free trade, the western ghats would be an ideal place to locate many new port cities. And their satellite towns. There is nothing now between Bombay and Goa, and nothing between Goa and Mangalore. There is lots and lots of empty land, rivers, beaches and mountains. This is an area with tremendous potential.

Yes, Gurgaon has failed. But so has Delhi. So has Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta…. The fault lies in the heads of those occupying the “commanding heights.” These heads should roll.

Thoughts Occasioned By An Electric Car

The cute Hyundai i10, the second-highest selling small car in India, is going electric. The petrol version of this car is currently manufactured at Hyundai’s Chennai plant for both the Indian as well as the world market. The electric version will be produced next year, initially for the Korean market, where – and this is the interesting part – the government has tax incentives in place for electric cars.

Frankly, I’ll always drive petrol. And I am against official policies that promote anything as “socially desirable.” Even the electric car will need electric charge – and some power plant somewhere will be burning coal to produce that electricity. I have also written in favour of a Indo-USSA “clunker deal”: allow our poor people to automobilize fast by buying every American gas-guzzling clunker for peanuts.

My argument is that our poor people must have cars today, so they produce more wealth for themselves today, in order to hand over more wealth to future generations – who will only then be able to face environmental challenges adequately. If we remain poor today, we remain poor tomorrow.

It is also true that electric cars are getting better every day. There are already many cars with hybrid engines being sold commercially. All cars are becoming more fuel-efficient. If we begin automobilizing our masses in full earnest now – through a clunker deal with the whole world – I am confident that these very people will buy brand new fuel-efficient cars someday soon, and their children will buy the most advanced cars in their own time.

But getting back to the i10: I would much prefer electric i10s darting about our streets than the pesky CNG-driven Bajaj auto-rickshaw – a vehicle that I do not consider “roadworthy” in any sense of the word.

My investigations in Delhi have revealed that a second-hand auto-rickshaw sells for over 200,000 rupees or US$5000. A modern car, second-hand, costs much less. Why are auto-rickshaws so expensive? The answer: They come with a “permit” to operate from the RTO. It is for the permit that the old auto-rickshaw is valuable. This permit system must go.

This is evidence that our The State’s dalliance with environmental causes is totally insincere. Environmental clearances are just another regulatory bottleneck for business – and a boon for baboodom. The Coastal Zone Regulation Act is also a tool for bureaucratic empowerment and for the dispossession of beachside property-owners. The State has also taken over forests – to protect tigers – but forest guards and forest-dwellers have divergent interests. There is endless conflict in our forests. And as far as automotive emissions are concerned, our nightmarish traffic, our pot-holed streets, and all these CNG auto-rickshaws, all combine to reduce efficiency. We waste fossil fuels in megatons.

This The State is also an enemy of the environment.

Recommended reading: My Four Wheels For All: The Case For The Rapid Automobilization Of India. A free download is available by clicking here.

Look And Laugh

The Beatles sang a song that went, “I read the news today oh boy, the English army had just won the war.” But after reading the news this morning, a different song came to my head, the great Fela Kuti’s “Look and Laugh.” (See the video here.)

Yeah: Look and Laugh.

First of all, there is this piece on Hillary Clinton and our environment minister not agreeing on emission targets.

I wonder where all she was taken during her trip. One photo shows her arriving at her hotel to a red carpet reception, complete with sari-clad ladies throwing rose petals at her feet.

The rose petals are significant. She must not be given a bumpy ride. So she must know nothing about the actual state of Indian roads. If she did, she would tell Chacha to fix the roads, and manage traffic scientifically – and thereby reduce India’s emissions of green house gases. Instead, she was taken to some green buildings. Of course, green buildings cannot save much energy when those who have to work in them arrive on rutted and pitted roads. Ask me. I drove to Gurgaon yesterday – where the green building Hillary visited is located. Perhaps they took her there by helicopter.

Second: There is an opinion piece today on the Tata Nano. Yes, the 1 lakh rupee or US$2500 car is here. There have been deliveries. The great Indian automobile revolution is on. It is unstoppable. It is gathering momentum. And there are no roads worth the name.

And finally, to crown it all, here is the news that LK Advani of the BJP is launching another “Rath Yatra.” He is planning to hit the non-existent road in his chariot, to “criss-cross the country to meet party workers, seeking to lift their sagging morale and rebuild his own image after back-to-back general election defeats.”

Where are the roads on which this great political leader of Hindutva can "criss-cross the country"?

Look and Laugh?

Or should it be “Hit the road, Jack!”?

You choose the song.

The Truth About Unsustainability

Watermelons like RK Pachauri, green outside but red inside, who spread the ugly virus of “sustainable development,” believe Capitalism is unsustainable for poor nations.

Actually, what is truly “unsustainable” is our The State.

In a nation without roads, our The State’s huge expenditures on “employment generation,” food and fertilizer subsidies, loss-making PSUs, loan waivers, and other assorted freebies for pals like the MPLADS, which are now going to be compounded with a cheap rice scheme and higher baboo wages – all this is “unsustainable” in the precise scientific sense that this huge burden on the productive few cannot be sustained any further. This verdict of unsustainability is based on sound economic science; not only theory, but also public finance. The State has reached the limits of its ability to borrow. And there is also a limit to its ability to engage in “quantitative easing,” the new term for printing rupee notes and issuing them.

All these expenditures are further unsustainable because The State must be directed towards performing its legitimate role – legitimate in the sense of classical liberals like Ludwig von Mises. Mises disavows anarchism totally. He says that State organization is necessary. His only insistence is that it should be restricted to its legitimate role. What is this role?

Without getting into that discussion, let me just say that our roads suck, there aren’t even decent footpaths in our cities and towns, garbage lies uncollected, our courts system is clogged, our police protect VIPs only, and even our air force fighter jets seem to be crashing with worrying regularity. And our The State is buying 20k crores worth of boilers and furnaces to generate electricity!

So let us be clear as to what exactly is “unsustainable.” Economic growth is eminently sustainable as far as the resources of nature are concerned, but “government growth” is not.

I saw Pachauri and Prannoy Roy engage in a huge diversion on tv last night: a “save the beaches” campaign. The worry is that there will be too many ports, too many hotels, too many mansions, and too much prosperity if The Market is unleashed on our sea shores. Roy was shocked that apart from the 12 major ports, our 7500 km long coastline has over 100 minor ports. He asked his “expert witness”: Isn’t that too much?

I find this amazing from a guy who also owns a business channel called “profit.” If we build a highway 7500 kms long, who can decide how many petrol pumps will come up and where? Or how many dhabas?

Yes, the laws of catallactics predict with apodictic certainty that if India declared unilateral free trade all the action would be along the 7500 km coast. Hundreds of free trading port cities would erupt. Thousands of such towns. There would be a huge migration of rural folk to these new urban centres of international trade. More and more real and live human beings would live better lives.

This is one way to go: To Say Humans Come First.

Then there is the watermelon way: The State Must Protect The Sand.

You decide.

Against RK Pachauri

Today, June 5, is World Environment Day, and so the Times of India leader article is by the scientist RK Pachauri, who recently shared the Nobel peace prize with Al Gore for his work on “global warming.” Pachauri’s article of today deserves careful scrutiny, for it is nothing but a litany of errors. If these errors are translated into official policy, India will remain poor and backward forever. For the central theme of the article is the call for more and more State action. Pachauri, it becomes obvious, hates The Market. He loves our The State.

Pachauri starts off with a bang:

“The first and most important change that the new government at the Centre ought to address is shifting the pattern of development itself.”

Now, this is something that I would agree with, while arguing for free markets. But Pachauri thinks differently. He is for “sustainable development” – which means continued State interference in markets. He says, in the first para itself, that the basic problems are caused by “blind aping of everything that defines lifestyles in the developed countries.” He lists his targets for attack:

“The unregulated growth of shopping malls, each guzzling several megawatts of electricity; the unsustainable exploitation of our groundwater resources, driven essentially by heavy subsidies on the price of electricity for farmers; and incursions into tribal areas and agricultural or forest lands for setting up industrial projects…”

Actually, Pachauri’s office is bigger than any mall: the Habitat Centre in New Delhi. I am confident that the central air-conditioning system in Habitat “guzzles” more electricity than all the malls in Gurgaon combined.

But that apart, it does seem perverse to argue against projects in tribal areas. Surely “sustainable development” does not mean that all agricultural and forest (unowned) land remain frozen in their current use. Indeed, it is well known that one of the biggest corruption rackets in India is the “permission” given by our The State to use agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes.

I would argue – Let The Market Decide. Let landowners be Free. Pachauri is batting for the other side.

Pachauri then throws a wild card into the ring: he calls for “distributive justice,” the great idea of Socialism. He says Naxalism is caused by “the growing disparity between rich and poor, symbolised by the insensitive and vulgar display of wealth by the rich in our society.”

The dude is a “watermelon”: green on the outside and red inside.

And he is not just any kind of red: he is an étatist. His next para is all about State action required to promote green energy, strengthening the pollution control bureaus, and saving the tiger as “an economic and cultural imperative.” Of course, in the meantime, I just suffered a 2-hour power failure this morning, which is why this post is late. Most people in India do not have energy – neither electricity, nor cooking gas. Most people do not own cars. Which is the way to proceed? What is “development”?

Pachauri goes on to call for Gandhian “rural development,” and strengthening the “delivery mechanism” of the – you guessed it – civil services. It seems in the utopia of sustainability, baboos will “deliver.” Not markets, but baboos. Sheer nonsense.

The rest of the article babbles on about the need for an “external assistance programme” by which India can assist poorer nations. What rot! He calls for action by our The State on global warming – or “climate change,” as he prefers to call it. Never mind the fact that they could not predict the arrival of this year’s monsoon correctly. Even with their “supercomputers.” Pachauri concludes by calling for a united political response to his agenda – the BJP and the Congress should combine to bring this about.

Thus it becomes obvious that the votaries of “sustainable development” are enemies of prosperity. Thereby, they are enemies of the poor. They do not want to raise consumption and living standards in India. They do not want free trade and free markets. They want State action. They idolize baboodom.

Actually, prosperity is eminently sustainable.

It is poverty that is unsustainable.

Think about that.

Recommended reading: My article on the Al-Gore - IPCC agenda, titled "Just Hot Air," available here.

Climate Change Be Damned!

Manmohan has just unveiled a New Plan:

A Plan For The Climate!

Here is the news today:

“The National Action Plan on Climate Change stated that India’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions will “at no point exceed that of the developed countries”. The plan will be implemented through eight missions, which represent multi-pronged, long-term and integrated strategies for achieving key goals in the context of climate change.”

This basically means 8 new regulatory hurdles for businessmen.

This is an elitist ploy. Note that the report ends by quoting a civil society activist who says: “We are disappointed with the complete lack of transparency and the closed manner in which the plan has been prepared.”

This climate change politics is the return to Communism and Central Planning, and thank heavens that there is at least one statesman in the western world who condemns it in precisely these words.

And that is Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic. He has seen communism and recognizes the return of this “religion” in another garb.

Here is what a Washington Times report on an interview with Klaus starts off saying:

“Environmentalism, says Czech President Vaclav Klaus, is the new communism, a system of elite command-and-control that kills prosperity and should similarly be condemned to the ash heap of history. The provocative Mr. Klaus, an economist by training and former prime minister, said in an interview that today's global warming activists are the direct descendants of the old Marxists who trampled on individual freedoms and undermined free markets in pursuit of a greater good. "I understand that global warming is a religion conceived to suppress human freedom," he told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. "It is used to justify an enormous scope for government intervention vis-a-vis the markets and personal freedom."

So draw the battle lines:

Environmentalists on the Left side.

Libertarians on the other!

And do read my "Just Hot Air: The Al Gore - IPCC Agenda".