Let Us Glorify The Honest Civic Corporation

Tamil Nady chief minister's complaint that the Centre is "reducing State governments to glorified municipal corporations" is laughable. In reality, every State capital - including Chennai - is a shambles. It is the State governments that have destroyed municipal administration in India - while tom-tomming panchayati raj (village government). Thus, every city and every town throughout India has been destroyed.


Yesterday, I advocated Free Cities. These free cities will require honest civic corporations to run them - garbage, sewage, roads, footpaths, street-lighting, and so on. They will need Mayors - not chief ministers, who can take a walk along with the entire edifice of our The State from Nude Elly. The "model" from History is that of the Olde City of London - and you can find an essay on that in my Natural Order: Essays Exploring Civil Government & the Rule of Law available online here.


If I may add, all these activities of the civic corporation can be honestly "contracted-out" to competing private firms. There need not be any "bureaucracy." There need not be any "departments." The City can be "free." That is, the citizens can be free. The City can have a Basic Law proclaiming the Inviolability of Private Property - and the rest can take care of itself. Instead of "crimes" there can be "torts" - which are all "crimes against the individual" - and, if convicted, the tortfeasor will have to financially compensate his "victim." There need not be any jails.


In such an administrative and legal framework, taxes will be low, and all voluntary trades will be free.


If such an honest civic corporation can be set up anywhere in India, would you not "glorify" it?


And as for the State Governments - the bhateejas of chacha in Nude Elly - this report says they are all heavily in debt! They are part and parcel of the "fiscal deficit" being financed by Nude Elly through printing money and borrowings. The report says that electricity losses alone are over 70,000 crore rupees. And we do NOT have reliable supply. Wanna glorify these morons?

Amartya Sen... And His Evil Metaphysics

Amartya Sen, the only Indian "economist" to win the Nobel prize, received this award for his "contributions to the economics of welfare." This is an entirely metaphysical discipline, resting, as it does, on a mythical "social welfare function" that supposedly inhabits the minds of the wise, caring and benevolent personnel of The State. He has thus championed the "right to work" programmes of the mammoth MGNREGA, and his protege, Jean Dreze the "sociologist" - another metaphysical discipline - sits on the National Advisory Council with soniaji and they are now coming up with more and more nonsensical ideas, from cheap rice to what not. Mint has an editorial today on "another flawed rural scheme" - designed to "promote rural livelihood." This is the metaphysical social welfare function at work.

Reality suggest something else is at work - a Predatory State. I am living on Station Road, Bhubaneshwar; there is no road to my hotel, and the establishment does not possess a license to serve alcohol. There are very few such shops on this road, and last evening I had to walk more than a mile - through slush and filth - to obtain some beer, which has been heavily overtaxed. Poor people cannot afford this healthy drink - and their traditional toddy is banned. There goes an important "rural livelihood."

The same is true for ganja. There is a hole-in-the-wall shop just outside the station where I bought a tola of fuck-all smoke. If the stuff is being sold, then why not sell it openly? Liberate the people. Let them enjoy quality. Let us think like Amsterdam. Cannabliss Indica - and not the Tata Indica.

Amartya Sen does not believe in Liberty. His two anti-market and pro-State books are Development as Freedom and Rationality and Freedom. In the former he has argued that people cannot be free without "development" - which is something the chaps with the "social welfare function" embedded in their brains must bring about. In the latter, he has argued, quite unabashedly, that poor people cannot be free because they are NOT "rational." Hence they need his "education." I reviewed this book - most unfavourably - for the New York Sun, and you can find it online here. The review was titled "Why Amartya Sen Is An Enemy Of The Poor: Freedom Matters More Than Education."

Talking about education, I met some young students of electrical engineering on the train to Sambalpur. When I asked about their career prospects, they said their hopes lay in State employment - that is, working for the Orissa State Electricity Department. I advised them against it, saying they would be not only corrupted, they would also never learn anything about modern "technology." I advised them to work for private firms, preferably cutting-edge foreign firms. To drive my point home, I have the example of the State Railway we were riding. It did the 350km journey from Puri to Sambalpur in 7 hours, averaging 70 km an hour. A modern bus on a modern highway could have done the distance in less than three hours, I told them. So if you work for the State Railway, you will never "learn" anything about technology; all you will learn is corruption.

They are corrupting the minds of the youth with their metaphysics. They are corrupting all whom they employ. And there is surely no "social welfare function" in the mind of the Railway Minister, is there?

Amartya Sen comes from a generation that claims to have "fought for freedom." Utter nonsense! These guys merely wanted State Power - to unleash their own horrors on the poor people.

We need to fight for freedom again. This must begin with a freeing of our minds from their metaphysical delusions and seeing reality as what it is - a Predatory State writ large.

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. 

Votes For Sale or Goods For Sale?

Julian Assange has done India the favour of exposing the fact that MPs traded their votes in Parliament for cash from the CONgress.

How is that different from voters in Tamil Nadu trading their votes for freebies from Karunanidhi or Jayalalitha, or both?

There was a scandal many years ago when a BJP guy in Lucknow distributed sarees free on behalf of Atal Behari Vajpayee - and many women died in the stampede that followed.

All this is not new to Public Choice Theory, where "vote trading" has been carefully studied for decades. Do study Gordon Tullock's The Vote Motive. It will introduce you to the idea of "State Failure." That is, even in "liberal democratic" states. This is the very opposite of "market failure" - which Economics textbooks teach these days.

Markets do not fail. Freedom cannot fail. I will never forget the first time I was taken to Main Street  in Poona - the central market area from British times - and my guide waved her arm about and said, "You get everything here."

Yeah, Everything.

We get nothing from our The State - except Persecution. If every State Monopoly was privatised, including forests, our lives would be much, much better. We would have electricity 24 x 7. We would be possessed of toll highways and truckways of international quality. Our railways would be first class. And there would be trams in every small town. There would be lots of different meats to eat - like wild boar. And timber would be plentiful and cheap. This includes sandalwood. Poor Veerappan - murdered by our The State without a public trial.

So, screw The State.

And love The Market.

And remember these words of Ludwig von Mises, always:

It is precisely the necessity of making profits and avoiding losses that gives to the consumers a firm hold over the entrepreneurs and forces them to comply with the wishes of the people.

Better to have The Market - where mass production for mass consumption means We The People control entrepreneurs.

The "rupee vote" in The Market works - for our benefit.

And screw Democracy - for MPs just sell their votes, just as voters themselves do. The "vote motive" underlines the "vote market." We The People become wee, the sheeple.

We can happily do without the vote market and the vote motive.

All we need is The Perfect Rule - which is The Inviolability of Private Property - as I wrote about some days ago.

Natural Order. Natural Law. Natural Liberty.

Rats - And The Sinking Ship

The photo accompanying this post is from Jaitapur on the Konkan Coast just north of Goa, where a State-owned nuclear power plant is slated to come up. This photo appeared in Outlook, and shows our State Police meting out rough treatment to locals opposed to the forcible seizure of their lands, and also opposed to a nuclear facility in their area for reasons of safety. The report in Outlook says this about the Central State's choice of Jaitapur as a site for a nuclear power plant:

But in 20 years, as many as 92 quakes have been recorded here [Jaitapur], with the severest of them in 1993 measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale. The region is officially seismically marked as Zone III — Zone V being the worst category. And despite the elevation of the site on a plateau, concerns about a tsunami refuse to fade. It is perhaps keeping this in mind that Commerzbank, the German bank backing the project, pulled out even before the Japanese crisis, citing the “sustainability and reputational risk” involved.

There is another report, this time in Tehelka, which chronicles abuses of power by the State Police - who seem to be on the side of our The State and not The People, and must therefore be looked upon as Predators, not Protectors. The report begins saying that "lock-ups, prisons and court cases have become an integral part of the lives of Jaitapur’s residents." The opening para ends saying that this "scenic village" has been turned into a "state of dystopia."

[Dystopia is the opposite of Utopia: that is, a place where conditions of life are dreadful.]

Tehelka goes on to say that Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code (relating to unlawful assembly) has been in force in Jaitapur since August, 2010, in order to "maintain peace." They say false cases have been lodged against activists opposing the nuclear power plant. They add that the latest from the State Police is the arrest of 14 persons including a prominent nuclear plant opposer, Dr. Milind Desai.

The new chief minister of Maharashtra - who took over when the last chap was replaced by the CONgress High Command in Nude Elly because of his direct involvement in the Adarsh building scam - is the very same fellow who flanked Chacha Manmohan when he signed the nuclear deal with Sarkozy: Prithviraj Chavan, who then Minister for Science and Technology in Nude Elly. Tehelka says Prithviraj Chavan is "the PM’s point man for the Jaitapur plant and all other new n-plants coming up in the country." Thus, the new CM is very keen on seeing the project through.

However, when this chief minister visited the area, 10,000 locals turned up to meet him, shouting, “No nuclear power, no nuclear plant.” Writing about this public appearance of the CM, Tehelka says:

In front of a gathering of 10,000 Chavan had no choice but to listen to them, but he was visibly annoyed sitting on the dais, helpless.

When he finally spoke, Chavan stressed in an uncharacteristically aggressive tone the ‘misconceptions’ and misleading reports the locals were made to believe. He invoked national pride and the competition with China to justify the successful completion of the project, but appeared to have ignored local sentiment.

Thus, this new CM is an agent of Nude Elly - and a traitor to his own Maharashtrian people. Nude Elly, on its part, has committed High Treason against these simple and innocent village folk - as I wrote in a recent post.

In any case, electricity production by our The State should be opposed by all right-thinking citizens - if they desire regular, uninterrupted power supply. Electricity must be privatised - and private power producers will choose the fuels that are cheap and safe. Full liability will apply to them in case of accidents. This is what ought to be.

Let us turn to the people at the top - in Nude Elly. A timely column by Pritish Nandy - who has also been a Rajya Sabha MP (Shiv Sena!) - is titled "A ship about to sink." Here are some chosen quotes:

The Indian Political Philharmonic Orchestra must be the world’s most amazing cacophony of rogues, rascals and robbers. 

But now, enough is enough. Neither [Manmohan] Singh nor Pranab Mukherjee, nor anyone else is capable any more of saving this Government. It’s neck deep in its own sticky sleaze.... Look at Singh, wan and waylost.

But that doesn’t mean they are not malevolent. These are people who are destroying India from within. They are not just robbing you, me, and the exchequer. They are destroying institutions, subverting laws, vandalising our heritage and history, and trying to build a dazzling, amoral edifice of crime and corruption unprecedented in the nation’s history. It’s a scary scenario that could turn the land of the Mahatma into one gigantic Gotham City with a flyover to hell.

I had begun this post with the abuses of power being committed by the State Police against innocent people - and they are the rats in this sinking CONgress ship.

I am now even more convinced that every citizen should get himself a gun. We must all be fully capable of defending ourselves - against the State Police, who are our oppressors.

My ideal is India before the Police Act of 1861 - ironically, the very same year that Rabindranath Tagore, the poet who dreamed of an India "where the mind is without fear and the head is held high," was born. Till then, the "civilians" of the East India Company ruled without police support. All that these HEICS civilians did was maintain land records up-to-date and settle disputes.

In England, there were no policemen till 1829, when Sir Robert Peel established the Bobby of London - who remains unarmed.

And in good, old America, every town elected its own Sheriff - while every citizen was armed.

There is the other ideal too - of the Anglo-Saxon tribes of old, who had no notion of crimes other than "crimes against the individual," which were treated as Torts. I wrote about this "superior justice" of restitution (as against the retribution of today) just the other day.

Enough of these rats of the State Police. Let them go down with the sinking Pirate Ship of State. Let us be free. And let us be secure with our own arms.

Delhi's Treason Against The Konkan

The nuclear disaster in Japan has brought into sharp focus the fact that the nuclear power plant slated to come up on the Konkan Coast, in Jaitapur, just north of Goa, is fraught with grave risks. No wonder both the prime minister as well as his environment minister are making noises about "additional safeguards." This is pure bull, of course. In truth, Nude Elly is guilty of treason against the people of the Konkan.

The word "treason" is defined as "breach of faith or disloyalty." So, there can be treason by the people against their sovereign. Or, as in the present case, it can be the other way around - treason by the sovereign against the people. Let us begin with the facts of the case.

The nuclear power plant slated to come up in the Konkan is in an ecologically sensitive area. The plant was hurriedly cleared ahead of the visit of French president Sarkozy - because the principal supplier is the French firm Areva. The environmental clearance was also hurriedly given.

And there is more: Parliament has passed a Civil Liability Bill pertaining to nuclear accidents that limits the damages nuclear suppliers have to pay in case of accidents. Thus, the lives of the people are being sold cheap - to foreigners. If anything, this is High Treason.

As far as the local people are concerned, they are all up in arms against the project - they are opposed to the forcible seizure of their lands, and they are opposed to the project also because of the grave threat of a nuclear accident in the future. As far as the latter is concerned, their fears seem totally justified today.

Jaitapur is in the Ratnagiri area, famous for its Alfonso mangoes - the world's best mango. If there is an accident, there won't be any Alfonsoes for 100 years. Tourism in Goa will also be affected.

As far as the central ministry of environment is concerned, its principal activities in the Konkan are:

1. The Forest Department, that owns all unowned land, and

2. The Coastal Zone Regulation Act, by which central bureaucrats virtually own and control all beachside property.

In view of the High Treason committed by the Central State's environment ministry against the people, it is my view that both the Forest Department as well as the CRZ personnel should be thrown out of the area.

All unowned land should be opened up for "homesteading" - so that the region urbanises, and develops. There are no cities here between Mumbai and Goa (550 kms), nor any cities between Goa and Mangalore (350 kms). This, while there are three cities in the 150 km stretch comprising Goa.

Thus, there is immense potential for many more cities, towns and beach resorts. This includes many free trading port cities. This is surely preferable - to have human habitation and real estate development instead of low-grade iron ore mining.

To achieve this urban and tourism potential, the Konkan region should also practice unilateral free trade - and send the Customs Department back to Nude Elly, where they get their orders from.

Let us not forget that the central State's highway project completely bypasses the Konkan Coast. Today, because the existing "notional highway" is is such bad shape, loaded trucks are carried up and down the coast on the Konkan Railway! This itself is proof that a "truckway" dedicated to freight-hauling trucks can easily come up in the private sector - on "free land." Further, a regular highway for passenger cars and buses - for the tourists - can also be built for profit by entrepreneurs. Thus, this region does not need anything from the Central State and its "planners."

I am also of the firm opinion that the Central Legislation prohibiting narcotics should be annulled in this region. Then, tourism will boom because tourists will be made blissfully happy - "cannabliss," as they say. Ganja farmers will also prosper, with a new, legitimate cash crop.


Recommended readings:

1. My previous post on the need for fully empowered mayors running all cities and towns.

2. Another post addressed to the bourgeoisie of urban India, recommending New Public Management for the provision of civic services, and also suggesting that we must seriously re-consider paying taxes to the Central State.

A Religion Of Consent

Decades ago, I spent a week or two with a bunch of guys and girls on a beach and, during that time, through dialogue, we established a "religion" amongst ourselves, whose chief tenet went thus:

There must not be any must-to-do. There must also not be any must-not-to-do.

A "religion of consent."

Scene II: The village pub this morning, and I am on a feni-soda. Guy comes around asking for water. I tell him, "This is a booze joint, dude. Want water, go to Gandhi's shop."

Everybody laughed - but this is Goa, where alcohol prohibition is unthinkable.

Not so in Gandhi's Gujarat - where "consent" is not the religion, but "force" is. This is not "non-violence." Indeed, this is nothing but State Violence. The inmates of Sabarmati Ashram are using State Violence to bring about their peculiar and warped vision of a "perfect society."

There can never be a "perfect society" if force and power are used to bring it about. These ideas lie at the root of all tyrannies - including religious tyrannies. Socialism, Communism, Central Planning - these are all based on conceptions of some "perfect society" or the other. All that such ideas have yielded is arbitrary power. Tyranny!

Liberty is something else - it is for each Individual to "pursue happiness" his own way. To find his own "perfect high." To find his "personal Utopia." Liberty is not the Utopia of One Mind. Rather, it is the utopianism of all.

The real problem with our country is that "consent" does not rule. Instead, we are ruled by arbitrary rules and diktats. By guns and bullets. By the danda.

The latest evidence on this comes from close by here - Jaitapur, further up the Konkan, where land is being forcibly "acquired" by our The State to build a massive nuclear power plant. This, while civil liability in case of an accident has been "limited" by Parliament in order to benefit foreign equipment suppliers. The news says:

Although the government has issued notices to acquire the 968 hectares of land needed for the project in five villages, most of the villagers have refused to accept the compensation and surrender their land. 

The news adds that the chief minister of Mahrashtra visited the area and blamed "foreign powers" for the trouble!

Methinks the real problem is our "domestic power" - The State - which violates Property. As long as this continues, there can never be a "religion of consent." There can never be any Liberty either. We in India must choose - and the time is now.

There is everything to fear in arbitrary power - which is never government, but always Tyranny.

On the other hand, there is nothing to fear in Liberty, for the religion of consent will prevail, and there will be order - the "natural order."

How do we spread the religion of consent?

Well, how else, but by consent. Each one convince another.

Cronies Cannot Rescue Our The State From Collapse

In yesterday's post, I rubbished an article in the ToI by Rahul Bajaj that concluded thus:

In the final analysis, India's growth process under a democratic government is a sustainable, humane and just path to development. 

I also quoted his praise of our village panchayats. This, while his own city, Poona, is a shambles.

Today, I would like to place before my reader an article in Tehelka on the State-owned nuclear power plant due to come up in Jaitapur, on the Konkan coast just north of Goa, that has also received environmental clearances from Nude Elly. The article says that elected personnel of 10 village panchayats in the area have resigned in protest against this nuclear power plant. In all, 90 democratically elected local representatives have resigned. They also boycotted a meeting called by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. They are demanding a local referendum on the project. They want that their lands, which have been "forcibly acquired," should be returned to them. The really troubling fact is that our The State is responding with police repression:

"The locals are being treated as hardened criminals," alleges Adwait Pednekar of the Konkan Bachao Samiti. "Externment orders and Section 37(3), (1), 144 (unlawful assembly) have been constantly promulgated in the area to prevent exercise of democratic rights.

Is this the "sustainable, humane and just path to development" Bajaj is hallucinating about? Is this "local self-government"? Bajaj is an MP. And this is Maharashtra, where he lives, and where his factories are located. In my book, this is nothing but tyranny. This is the Predatory State.

In yesterday's post, I also wrote about an "Open Letter to India's Leaders" signed by 14 of India's economic elites. Today, I am pleased to provide a link to that letter, which has been published in Outlook. After reading the letter, I am in full agreement with Shekhar Gupta's assessment of it that I quoted yesterday: it is full of "platitudes." In other words, like the Rahul Bajaj article, this too is nothing but pure bull.

To begin with, this Group of 14 say they "are concerned with the general deterioration in the overall value system of the nation, but have abiding belief and commitment in India’s potential and prospects as a successful democracy." In the next paragraph, they add:

What we are deeply worried about is not to allow India’s huge growth potential and poverty alleviation challenges to be diluted or digressed from, and which would be a great loss, especially to the poor and the dispossessed.

What are these "poverty alleviation challenges"? More welfare? NREGA and all that bull? Purchasing votes with more funny money? In yesterday's post I discussed the doublespeak of one of the signatories, a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Bimal Jalan. There are two other bankers in this Group of 14 - N Vaghul and Deepak Parekh. The "great loss to the poor and the dispossessed" is inflation. And they are being "dispossessed" because they have no right to Property - which is "possession." What humbug!

The Group of 14 cronies then list out their suggestions: More regulatory bodies - and the language is fantastic: "creation of genuinely independent and constitutionally constituted regulatory bodies, manned by persons who are judicially trained in the concerned field." Is the RBI "independent"? Is the Supreme Court? What about the "apolitical" IAS or IPS? What about regulatory bodies in telecom, civil aviation and environment? They are calling for a "new dirigisme."This means more bureaucracy, more red tape, more government - and hence, more corruption. But cronies never favour Liberty and laissez faire - for obvious reasons.

The letter then lists out their major concerns: corruption, environment, a "governance deficit" (not the Budget deficit, mind you) - and their only suggestion is Ombudsmen (Lok Ayuktas).

As with Rahul Bajaj, this Group of 14 never utter the words Liberty and Property. They never mention the idea of urban self-government - which is where we Indians are really getting screwed. They never mention roads. They never use the word "privatisation" - which alone can deliver us electricity.

As I said yesterday, these are all "cronies." They are engaging public opinion in order to hoodwink the public, to cover up the real deficit, to offer false solutions, and to evade mentioning the real ones. As three of them are bankers, they ought to know that Property solves the "mystery of Capital" - for the poor. Parekh, in fact, is a "housing finance" banker. Just a few days ago, I wrote about how the Chief Economist of Parekh's HDFC Bank was hoodwinking public opinion on inflation, by failing to mention money supply increases are the only cause.

These cronies, these accomplices in tyranny and plunder, live in cloudcuckooland. This becomes obvious when you read this sentence in the opening paragraph of their Open Letter:

We are a fraction of a very large number of Indians who, we believe, share our hopes and aspirations but have no means to channel their views and opinions in India’s public domain.

Thank goodness for blogs, and the Internet, Tweeter, Facebook and all the rest. We no longer have to "channel" our opinions via the corporate media.

The real "hopes and aspirations" of this Group of 14 cronies lie in our The State - in funny money and credit creation. In protectionism. In legal plunder of all kinds. In regulatory bodies staffed by the bureaucracy.

Further, their phony concern for the "poor and the dispossessed" is all about "poverty alleviation" - which is welfare that will be administered by IAS cronies. One of the 14 is Anu Aga of Thermax, who is a member of the National Advisory Council attached to Sonia Gandhi that is pressing the case for "universal food security." All these are intended to increase the size of the Budget - and "empower" the bureaucracy with tonnes of funny money. The political intention is to purchase the votes of the poor.

The article by Rahul Bajaj as well as this Open Letter show signs of desperation; but the fact remains that these "platitudes" - as Shekhar Gupta called them - are not going to impress anyone. Poor farmers all over the country have woken up to their rights to Property - especially after Singur and Nadigram. And now Jaitapur will explode on the face of The State - just you wait and see. 

Inflation is harsh reality too. I was immensely delighted to read a piece ridiculing montek's take that inflation is caused by prosperity. This liar's pants are verily on fire. Hooray!

The undeniable fact is that our The State is tottering. Manmohan has fallen off his high perch. Sonia and Rahul are zeroes. The BJP is an ugly joke. The Communists are being slaughtered - at least in Bengal. The crony media stands exposed. Army generals and even Supreme Court judges have been found corrupt. There have been too many corruption scandals in too short a time.

What can we ordinary people do? Well, a fellow interested in activism called on me a few days ago, and I gave him some ideas. I will discuss these in my post of tomorrow. Stay tuned.

4 Idiots

Take this, from a news report, for starters:

"Shopping malls are vulgar display of wealth and a vulgar wastage of energy and space," minister of state for urban development Saugata Roy (Trinamool Congress) said at a seminar, agreeing with environmentalist R K Pachauri who also described the malls as "energy guzzlers".

This minister - and Pauchauri too - ought to have been asked some very hard questions. There is surely more to reportage than dumb reportage.

The Central State ministry for urban development, which this fellow now heads, has always been in charge of the "planning" of Nude Elly - which is a planned, "new" city. This ministry controls the Delhi Development Authority (DDA - on which I wrote yesterday) which is a land and housing monopolist. They have built DDA housing - a very vulgar display of socialist architecture. Over half the city's inhabitants live in slums and "unauthorised colonies": should we applaud this vulgar display of poverty?

Note that these "central planners" who planned the very city they live in, never thought of physical markets. In the older parts of the city, there are huge markets: Chandni Chowk, Daryaganj, Sadar Bazaar, Connaught Place, Karol Bagh... But look at the tiny market places in the newer localities of swank South Delhi: Defence Colony, Panchsheel Enclave, the four Greater Kailashes, and all the rest. These planners have, however, dedicated huge spaces for "parks." They don't know anything about cities as market centres, as commercial engines. After all, they are "socialists": IAS officers and CONgressmen. Contrast Saugata Roy's CONgress mind with that of Sir Stuart Hogg, who built Calcutta's "New Market" - still "The Shopping Mall" of that city. Every British hill-station has a central shopping mall - the "maal road," as locals call them.

Let us turn to Dr. RK Pachauri, Nobel laureate. He thinks malls are "energy guzzlers." This seminar was held in the Habitat Centre, where TERI occupies a few centrally air-conditioned floors. The reporter ought to have asked Pachauri if the Habitat Centre was not a guzzler of energy too.

The same report says that the Central State minister for environment is also very upset about energy guzzlers on wheels:

Recently, environment minister Jairam Ramesh termed sports utility vehicles (SUVs) as diesel guzzlers and called their use in the country "criminal".

If you are seriously concerned about wastage of energy, you would fix the roads and the traffic chaos first. Bad roads and choked traffic cause even tiny Marutis to waste enormous amounts of fuel. You cannot drive 25 metres in Nude Elly without having to change gears thrice. Just as land is a DDA monopoly, so also roads are a State monopoly. Both are therefore being "undersupplied" to benefit the monopolist State and its functionaries. India's roads and highway system - a State monopoly - causes a huge amount of energy wastage. When I drive the 35 km stretch between south Goa and my nearest city on the National Highway #17, I encounter at least 25 speed-breakers each way. Some positivist ought to measure how much fuel is wasted because of the speed-breakers and pot holes all over the country's highways.

I have another report on what the Communist MP Sitaram Yechury said in another seminar in another city. For example, this commie called for:

a powerful people’s movement against this crass consumeristic culture unleashed by market forces...

Yechuri studied his communist theories in Nude Elly's Jawaharlal Nehru University in the good old days when everyone worked and the shop-shelves were all empty - as were the streets. If you really "care" for the working classes, do you not feel happy when they consume better in exchange for their hard work? Why do people labour? - if not for the sake of enjoying whatever fruit that labour yields. Consumption is the purpose of production. The word "crass" means "vulgar." These union bosses want higher wages, but oppose "wage goods" as vulgar!

Not much difference between the minister, Pachauri, Ramesh, and Yechury- all a bunch of commies.

What is decidedly dangerous is what the minister is aiming at, which Pachuri, an intellectual bodyguard of The State, is strongly supporting:

"It is high time the society steps in and puts certain regulations on shopping malls which are energy guzzlers," Roy said.

Society never steps in anywhere; society is just a myth. Parliament will step in and pass Legislation - and then armies of baboos will step in, all answerable to this minister, and to all his successors - these self-styled "representatives of society." This is the root of all the "delegated totalitarianism" I wrote about yesterday, which connects bureaucracy with democracy in totalitarian states. This is precisely how Jairam Ramesh's baboos in Goa are going about "implementing" the Coastal Regulatory Zone Act - an invasion of Private Property I wrote about the other day.

The minister should be told to disabuse himself of the notion that private citizens and businessmen are in the habit of wasting energy - or anything else. On the contrary, it is The State that wastes, and wastes, and wastes. In the energy business, all the electricity companies monopolistically owned by our The State "waste" trillions of rupees of our money every year. Because of erratic electricity, all of us "waste" trillions on inverters, generators, UPS systems etc. Such regulations as the minister and his ally Pachauri desire will waste time and human energy.

Notice how statists of all hues inevitably turn into totalitarians, hungry for power. Commies!

My message to these 4 Idiots is:

1. Get our The State out of the energy business.

2. Get our The State to fix the roads and regulate traffic - not business.

3. Get out of the highway business.

4. Get out - period.


Quite frankly, I don't know what exactly a "vulgar display of wealth" is. If you've got it and you flaunt it, who is a minister to complain about your aesthetics?

What I find offensive are "vulgar displays of power" - like the 12-car motorcades of our socialist ministers, complete with "commandos" openly carrying machine-guns. How much energy does that guzzle?

Chacha's "Work" - And A Proposed Increase

Our Great Leader, chacha manmohan s gandhi, in his New Year's eve message, has spoken of all the "work" he will do, for us, in 2011:

"We will redouble our efforts to deal effectively and credibly with the challenges of inflation, cleansing our governing processes, national security and making our delivery system work for the aam admi (common man)."

When the State says it will work harder - "redouble our efforts" - the people should be extremely wary. After all, the State is tax-collectors and policemen, and if tax-collectors and policemen "redouble their efforts" wee the sheeple get screwed. The State produces "bads"; only entrepreneurs produce "goods."

That is why a State that does very little makes sense - for taxes stay low. When all our big media editors loudly cheered as chacha manmohan announced his "right to free and compulsory education" they did not think of the "education tax" that would soon follow.

To most sensible people, what is urgently required in India is that our The State be cut down - that it do less, not more. Like get out of the electricity business. Like get out of the way.

Thus, if we take a re-look at all the "work" our Great Leader is promising to do, we might conclude that we would be much better off if his The State took a long holiday.

For example, chacha says he wants to "deal effectively and credibly with the challenges of inflation." But inflation is "deliberate policy." It is used to fund our The State's many expenses. The best way to deal with inflation is to shut down all the schemes funded through inflationary means. Thus, the less The State does, the better.

Similarly, when chacha says he will "work" towards "cleansing our governing processes" wee the sheeple ought to point out that the best way to do that would be to free The Market. Get out of the way. Let Freedom ring. The only "work" required is tearing up the bureaucratic rule-book. And repealing all the repressive legislation. The best way to cleanse the governing process is to have very few such processes - so that the perfectly honest processes of market exchange can proceed apace, without any State interference.

So when our Great Leader promises "making our delivery system work for the aam admi" we ought to tell him we would prefer the "delivery system" of the local shopkeeper. Thus, there would a "home delivery system for beer" in Nude Elly if the State got out of the business and let private shopkeepers sell the booze. In Gujarat, where prohibition rules, the mafia provide excellent "booze home delivery" services. Way to go!

So my response to chacha's message is: Do less work, dude. Shut down vast swathes of the State instead.

Yet, there are those who think otherwise - and recommend even more "work" for our The State.

The veteran journalist Prem Shankar Jha, in his recent column in Tehelka, concludes with the demand that "Manmohan Singh fulfills the promise to create a State funding system for elections." The column is on corporate sleaze - and Jha thinks if election campaigns are State-funded, political as well as corporate honesty will prevail.

If Jha's suggestion wins the day, we can easily predict what will transpire:

First, there will be a new "election tax."

Second, there will be a new head in the annual Budget under which resources will be allocated towards election funding.

Third, there will be ministries of election funding all over the land.

Fourth, anyone and everyone looking for free money will form a "political party" and contest elections. Bureaucrats will have a hard time separating genuine candidates from frivolous ones.

And fifth: Corporate sleaze will NOT go away, because that has nothing to do with election funding, and everything to do with "interventionism." Every State intervention in The Market sets up vested interests both in favour as well as against. Each such interest then seeks to buy support among legislators. This corrupts democracy - as MPs no longer "represent their constituencies"; rather, they represent special interests. I have an earlier post on this phenomenon.

Thus, asking the State to do more work is against the public interest.

My New Year message to all Indians is:

Ask NOTHING of the State.

So when chacha promises "national security" - while some 200,000 Indians die on our horribly unsafe roads every year - think of your own security. Be your own "security chief." Be your own "defence minister."

Remember, a gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.

A gun is a consumer durable that serves to make the consumer more durable.

Self-help is the way of The Market, even moreso in the vital area of "security."

Our Industrialists - And Industrialisation

The title of this news report reads: "India Inc. pleads for cheap money." A quote follows:

"What is required is greater credit availability and reduction in high interest rates to stimulate manufacturing, construction, electricity, mining and other core sectors," trade apex body FICCI said.

Note that under our current inflationary conditions, real interest rates are already negative - and if things proceed the way FICCI wants, then, apart from hurting poor people and savers with higher inflation, we would end up fueling an artificial boom, and with "malinvestments." A "bust" will surely follow. Disaster!

Thus, artificially low interest rates are extremely hazardous for economic health. They are the prime cause of business cycles - the boom-bust routines that plague the world. The painful depression that follows the euphoric boom occurs only because artificially low interest rates destroy rational economic calculation among businessmen. Whereas some businessmen are always to be found making errors, artificial booms result in "clusters of errors" - and these are unraveled when bubbles burst. Low capital cost makes projects seem profitable, just as inflation exaggerates expected returns - and these cause massive "malinvestments." Thus, what FICCI is demanding will not "stimulate industry," and certainly not in the long term.

In independent India, the goal of "rapid industrialisation" has been pursued relentlessly - but wrongly. Nehru's "heavy industrialisation" is now our "common loss." And as for the private sector, the policy of "import-substitution industrialisation" has only resulted in cronyism - and in huge losses for consumers. If we add to these wrong-headed policies the further ill of central banking and interest rate manipulation, we realise that laissez faire and "sound money" would have enabled our economy to fare much, much better. Let me begin with sound money - that is, the gold standard.

If the rupee is based on gold, redeemable on demand, then its value would always appreciate against the rest of the world's fiat paper currencies. This would make imports cheaper - and the consumption of even the poor would improve. Further, this means that imports of raw materials, components and technology would also become cheaper - and it is these factors that would give Indian exports their competitive advantage. There would be a "new industrialisation."

Surely this is far superior to the long-standing strategy of our The State - which is, to let the rupee continually depreciate in order to "promote exports" while at the same time halting all imports. Such a strategy not only impoverishes the Indian citizen-consumer; it also works to make the whole world poorer.

Free trade promotes industrialisation too. What happens then is that factories spring up to serve local demand that is being catered to by traders - in order to save on the costs of transportation. This is industrialisation based squarely on market conditions - and not on State intervention. Hence this is eminently "sustainable," because it is entirely "natural."

In the India of today, I can think of quite a few ways that free trade would promote domestic industries that are lying dormant now. For example, wine and cheese-making. If trade was free, a taste for wine would surely develop among Indian consumers. It is only then that Indian winemakers would flourish. Ditto for cheeses. It is only because of the popularity of pizzas that there are now many domestic manufacturers of mozarella. Yet, there are many hundreds of cheeses in the world, while Amul advertises itself as "The Taste of India."

India has remained a largely agricultural country - backward and poor - principally because our strategies for industrialisation have been wrong. Today, with a entire host of factors that give this nation the potential to become a "factory for the world" - like cheap, technically qualified labour, the English language and so on - we are being held back by our rotten infrastructure. Factories for the world require good roads, efficient ports, reliable electricity, livable cities and towns and so on. It is indeed pathetic that all these are areas of State failure. We should ask our The State to exit these areas too. Instead, our chambers of commerce continue to demand more interventionism.

Predatory State Writ Large

The central government's ministry of environment has given its clearance for the setting up of a nuclear power plant in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, on the Konkan Coast. This is an ecologically sensitive area, with fragile bio-diversity. Jaitapur is close to Ratnagiri, where the world-famous Alfonso mangoes come from. A nuclear accident here would be an unmitigated disaster - affecting even Goa, which lies a little south. It is also a fact that Parliament has passed legislation to the effect that, in case of nuclear accidents, liabilities will be "limited." So, if Ratnagiri mangoes and Goan tourism are wiped out, no one will bear responsibility.

But is a nuclear accident possible?

First: If such an accident was impossible, why would Parliament be so keen to pass legislation limiting liability - and why would the suppliers of equipment insist on such legislation? Indeed, such legislation provides them with the incentive to supply sub-standard equipment.

Second: The news report on the environmental clearance for the Jaitapur nuclear power plant contains this chilling sentence:

Jairam Ramesh, central environment minister, "pointed out that his ministry has no jurisdiction over radiology emission — a major concern among locals and environmentalists."

I also found this statement nonsensical:

"We need to change our fuel mix as 35 per cent of our carbon dioxide emissions come from electricity,” said Ramesh.

According to me, what we in India need to do urgently is change our electricity supplier - from The State to private businessmen. Let these private businessmen decide on the fuel. And let there be full liabilities in case of accidents - thereby giving them the incentive to take full precautions.

When I was in Mangalore many years ago, I was pleased to find that a barge-mounted power plant had come up on the sea, built and operated by a private company, using naptha (or was it gas?) as fuel. This is the way to proceed - especially in this ecologically sensitive Konkan Coast. If barge-mounted power plants become the norm, there would be no need for what the Maharashtra government has just announced: that "a group of ministers was working on the compensation package for the 2,335 farmers who are expected to be affected by the project." 2,335 farmers means more than 10,000 individuals if we include their families - and many thousands of hectares of precious land. This is, once again, a violation of Property.

The news on television mentioned that this nuclear power plant was being hurriedly cleared with an eye on President Sarkozy's visit to India - as this plant is to be built by the French company Areva.

This is a very big black mark on the CONgress-led government of Chacha Manmohan. His emphasis on nuclear power plants operated by The State is flagrantly anti-people - and anti-business as well. It is also anti-growth - because chronic power shortages are crippling economic activity throughout this vast sub-continent. Privatisation of power ought to have been top priority.

I found another black mark against Chacha's government this morning, in this editorial in Mint, which comments on his management of State finances. I quote:

The second supplementary demand for grants, tabled in Parliament in this session, when combined with the first one, pushes up the government’s spending plans by Rs74,400 crore, close to 1.1% of GDP, roughly 7% higher than the original budget. Much of this expenditure is on account of food and fertilizer subsidies, oil under-recoveries, defence and internal security expenditures. This spending will practically wipe out all the surplus revenue garnered from the 3G spectrum auction. In effect, recurring expenses have been met by the sale of a one-off item. There are plans to fund future expenditures of this kind by selling the government’s stake in public sector undertakings.

As the italicised portion in the quote above shows, our The State is WASTING the money it has received from the 3G auction - and it is this that should be considered a scandal. The huge amounts 3G operators have had to pay for spectrum is affecting consumers, who have to pay more for 3G services: lose-lose. Further, the manner in which 3G revenue has been wasted indicates that the "corruption" in 2G spectrum allocation was a "good thing" - for private businessmen saved money that The State would have wasted anyway. This ToI blog post by Rajeev Mantri echoes my sentiments.

Whereas Chacha Manmohan's record in misgovernment speaks loudly for itself, I found Ratan Tata's endorsement of his premiership most surprising. In this long interview, one that was broadcast on TV yesterday, here is what the chairman of the Tata Group said of Manmohan:

...he [Manmohan Singh] is a tremendously good man, we’re very lucky to have a prime minister like him.… he is one person who is truly above the allegations that have been thrown at him, a person who we are very lucky to have because it is his face that has been the face of a transforming India. And it is this person who has commanded the respect of leaders in major countries.

Let us now turn our attention to how poor people and very small entrepreneurs view our The State. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, editor of Mint, has written a brief column on this today, from which I quote below:

The poor live with corruption as a fact of life. Almost every transaction they have with the Indian state involves payment of a bribe. The Indian chapter of Transparency International published a study in 2008 on corruption faced by below poverty line (BPL) households across the country. Eleven government services were rated according to the prevalence of corruption. Transparency International points out that the highest corruption is in need-based services that are monopolies (police) or involve asset creation (land records or housing).

Rajadhyaksha calls for police reforms and computerisation of land records. I would have preferred the words Liberty and Property. That is - not "police reform" but "constitutional reform."

Thus, to me, there is no doubt about it. Ours is indeed a Predatory State. Even the ministry of environment is a predator. If "environmental clearances" have to be given, these should come from local institutions - and not the central State.

To poor people, the police and the land administration are predators.

We Indians must think of another way - Liberty, Property, Localism, Catallaxies.

Is Chacha Corrupt, Too?

In yesterday's post, I discussed the huge amount of political corruption India is reeling from these days. Today, the lead editorial in the Indian Express says, in so many words, that the "mud is spreading" - to Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi himself, who so far has been looked upon as Mr. Super Clean. The editorial refers to the telecom licensing scandal, and an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court by the ministry of telecommunications, in which it is stated that the tainted minister, A Raja of the DMK, had "no difference of opinion" with the Prime Minister, and that the latter was "kept fully informed of all decisions."

Yet, there are many other actions of Chacha, in the present as well as the past, that point to "corruption" - and I do not mean graft. For example, Chacha's "free and compulsory education" is nothing but corruption to me, for it aims at corrupting all young minds with the fatal errors of State Socialism. Let us not forget that if "higher education" in India is a huge mess today, Chacha was once Chairman of the University Grants Commission. He began his career in the Delhi School of Economics - as a "bureaucrat-professor." This "premier" institution, funded by The State, teaches mathematical economics and Keynesianism, among other corrupt doctrines. It is a leading centre for the study of "econometrics."

Let us fast forward to the present day - and the G-20 meet. Here, under Chacha's leadership, what the Indian State has managed to achieve is a larger slice of voting power in the IMF. The IMF is the fount of all "dishonest money" - and should be seen as an extremely corrupt idea. Chacha is upholding this corrupt idea. He has, of course, also been Governor of our central bank in the past, indulging in "deficit financing" and instituting "foreign exchange control." He is a Keynesian. The IMF is a Keynesian idea.

Since all this "dishonest money" from central banks and the IMF will cause more and more inflation, which will permanently pauperise our poor, Chacha's great ideas of "State welfare" for these poor Indians - like "right to food" and "right to work" - must also be seen as extremely corrupt, for it is fairly obvious that the biggest gainers will be those who administer these schemes and control these huge budgets. The poor, who need Liberty and Property, will only lose. The nation will lose as well, for precious private Capital will be taxed away and consumed - not "invested" in anything worthwhile, like roads, which we badly need.

Chacha's other "achievements" during his two terms as PM are also "corrupt" in my opinion. I think the idea of The State as a producer and supplier of nuclear power is corrupt - for it enhances the role of The State. Opening up power to competing private players would have been the "honest" thing to do. In addition, Chacha is also pushing for legislation that will limit liability in case of nuclear accidents. He is making us all "insecure."

Thus, the new ambition of the Total Chacha State, to occupy a seat in the UN Security Council, should be laughed at. It will make The State and its personnel secure, not us. Just as more votes in the IMF will make the RBI secure, not us.

If we Indians want to be "secure" and "free" - and if we want "honesty" in government - we must think of another way, very different from Chacha's corruptions.

First, instead of the UN or the IMF, we must think of Mayors in our own towns and cities. We must thin of hard, private money. We must think of a free and competitive Market for all, including foreigners. For our "security," we must think of Torts, and we must also think of how we can defend ourselves and our properties.

Only if we persevere in this line of thought and action, can we be rid of political corruption. All this rampant and widespread corruption stems from a Corrupt Idea - and that is Nehruvian Socialism: "The State at the commanding heights of the economy," "central economic planning," "the socialistic pattern of society," "panchayati raj and rural development," and, of course, "poverty alleviation and employment generation." Our Chacha is wedded to all these ideas. His State plans to borrow some 3,50,000 crores to fund these corrupt ideas. All this is nothing but corruption, corruption, and more corruption.

On A Parliament - Against The People

Our socialist Parliament has just passed the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill 2010. Two curious facts: The liability limit was trebled because of the Opposition. Chacha would have preferred to sell our lives cheaper. Second, read this:

The Lower House cleared the Bill after science and technology minister Prithviraj Chavan dropped the word “intent” from the legislation. The proposal had limited the liability by wording it as “act of supplier or his employees, done with the intent to cause nuclear damage”, which meant that the government would have to prove motive.

Mischievous people, our ministers. Torts always apply to unintended damages. But then, we in socialist India have no relief in torts. There is no "Rule of Law" here; there is only Legislation, as in this case. And Legislation is NOT Law.

I also found this section of the news report interesting:

Rejecting the Opposition’s allegations that the Bill was aimed at benefiting US companies, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “I categorically state that the Bill is a completion of a journey to end the nuclear apartheid which the world had imposed on India... To say that this has been brought to promote American interests, to promote American corporations, I think, this is far from the truth.”

“Nuclear power is an option we should simply not ignore,” Singh added, explaining that it was the most cost effective option to increase power generation capacity.

Supporting the Bill, Congress member of Parliament Manish Tewari said nuclear power was essential to achieve the targeted 9% growth in the gross domestic product. Almost 40% of Indian households are still without electricity and the government sees nuclear power as a viable option to meet the growing energy needs of the world’s second fastest growing major economy.

Yeah, nuclear power is cost effective ONLY if liability for damages is limited by this legislation. The news report quotes a nuclear industry lobbyist saying, “globally, there is no insurance coverage available for suppliers in the nuclear business."

Further, these nuclear power plants are all going to be run by The State. Mixed-up economy blues continue to play. They want to expand the Role of The State in every which way they can. They refuse to privatize electricity - in which case hundreds of private businessmen would set up power plants using gas, which is cheap. And safe.

Ultimately, it all boils down to PRINCIPLES. Socialists have never possessed principles of any kind. After all, their strategy is to use "education" as propaganda. Chacha uses the word "truth." Actually, he is an enemy of truth. An enemy of reason.

So let us turn away from Chacha and look towards a man of truth: Frederic Bastiat. His biographer, George Charles Roche III, reports that his last words were: "The Truth." And this is what he said about PRINCIPLES:

...only principles have the power to satisfy men's minds, to win their hearts, and to gain the consent of their consciences.

What do we do now? I suggest local communities rise to throw out any nuclear power plant coming up in their area - for it is they who will die first. This is the NIMBY theory: Not In My Back Yard.

And where is the biggest nuclear power plant coming up? According to this report, the biggest one is coming up in Ratnagiri, on the Konkan coast, quite close to Goa. Ratnagiri is where the world's best mangoes come from - the legendary Alphonso. If there is an accident, there will be no Alphonsoes for the next 200 generations. And no amount of fiat paper money can compensate for such a loss.

Song of the Day: Michael Jackson's "All I Wanna Say Is That They Don't Really Care About Us."

Here is the video.