Only Liberty And Property, Dudes

I found a strange article - actually a sort of book review - in Mint the other day, with the strange title:

More literacy + More per capita income= More democracy

And the sub-title read:

Whether education promotes democracy or the causality is the other way around, has been the subject of a heated debate, with some economists saying that institutions are the prime engine of growth, while others view human capital as the root cause of economic development

And, at the bottom, was the author, 

Manas Chakravarty's, conclusion:

Developing countries in East Asia, for instance, slowly became more democratic as they became richer. That could hold true for China as well. And for India, the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the concomitant higher levels of literacy, together with higher per capita income, will lead to a more meaningful participation in our democracy.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Note that the author never mentions the sweet word "Liberty." Nor that other sweet word "Property." We have neither - but we have "democracy." It is democratic legislation that banned 70,000 dancing girls in Bombay - and put some 5,00,000 musicians, bartenders, waiters, bouncers and cooks out of work. It is subordinate legislation that does not permit anyone to open a simple beer bar in Nude Elly. 


Yet, we are told we have The Vote. But you cannot eat The Vote; nor can you feed it to your family. Liberty is what you need - not The Vote.


And as for State Education: There are lots of people who could survive very well without formal education - like dancing girls and musicians.


There are lots of people who know something valuable that no formal education can teach them - like the tribals who "know" how to distil mahua from a jungle flower of the same name. They need Liberty.


Democracy is "the god that failed" - and this is clear when we look at Europe and the USSA today. With a "time preference" of just five years, democratic rulers "loot and scoot." Lord Keynes has given them the ability to do so even better. And their "education" (and their "intellectuals") have just endorsed Keynesian and socialist myths. 


If you read Hoppe's book, you will find a clear demonstration of the fact that "traditional monarchies" were better than democracy - because then, the ruler was "under the law," the people had liberty as well as property, and the ruler's time horizon was limitless, because his son would take over after he died, and so he had the desire to keep on increasing the capital value of his State. 


Under democracy, all we have, internationally, is "capital consumption" - which is the road to "de-civilisation." Just wait a few months, and you will realise how The Vote has destroyed the world. Especially "western civilisation." 


Destroyed.


Apart from Liberty, people need the inviolable right to Property - because this unlocks the "mystery of capital." As Hernando de Soto has shown, through field  studies all over the Third World, from Bangladesh to Egypt, poor people own property in these "poor nations" - property worth trillions - but possess no "titles." This bars them from Capitalism. They remain poor - forever. They live in shantytowns.


The sort of book that Manas Chakravarty has reviewed for his column is a good example of the kind of "empirical research" the subject of Economics does NOT need. There is no theoretical proposition in this subject that can be either established or proved by such research. The theories of Economics are best thought through by the economist in an armchair - and then used to confirm reality in the outside world. 


The Science of Economics consists of "looking out from within the consciousness." The importance of Liberty and Property are embedded within our consciousness. 


It is tragic that a columnist who purports to talk "Simply Economics" loses sight of his objective, gets entangled in pointless "empirical research," and then arrives at conclusions that support the ambitions of our Predatory State. 


So I go beyond what I said the other day:

Our poor people need Liberty and Property - and Nothing Else. 

They do NOT need Welfare.

They do NOT need Miseducation.

They do NOT need The Vote.

PS: The picture above is of John Locke, who wrote, in 1691, "where there is no Property, there is no Justice."

Continue With Rural Development? The Same Old Crap! Or Urbanisation Powered By Unilateral Free Trade?

What is the greatest threat to our lives: Terrorists or Maoists?


I would say: ROAD TRAFFIC!


200,000 people die on our unsafe roads every year, and many times more are seriously injured.


But at a a national workshop on rural development programmes in areas most affected by the Maoist movement, our Central State Police Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, said that Maoists are a bigger threat than terrorists - while forgetting all about road traffic deaths, of course.


The news report says:

In the first eight months of this year, the number of civilians killed by Maoists is 10 times more than those killed in terror attacks, he [Chidambaram] said at a national workshop on rural development programmes in areas most affected by the rebel movement.

The one-day "workshop," held in Nude Elly, was attended by all the top brass connected with "rural development": first, the Rural Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh, a political flyweight, Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh; there was Montek, who heads the Planning Commission, the "economist"; there was minister for road transport and highways C.P. Joshi and tribal affairs and panchayati raj minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo.


The Annual Budget for rural development is 87,800 crore rupees. (One crore is 10 million.)


The news report says:

The rural development ministry is the nodal agency for development schemes, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Indira Awas Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and the National Rural Livelihood Mission. It has been allocated 87,800 crore rupees in the year to 31 March to implement these programmes. This includes the allocation to the department of drinking water and sanitation.

s.

But, obviously, all this SHIT is not working - because it cannot. Economic Law cannot be violated. Economic Law says the "division of labour" - which is the "specialisation" by which wealth is created - is maximised in cities and towns, because there are bigger markets there, because population density is high. A tea-shop in Pondicherry earns much more than a tea-shop in the jungles of Jharkhand - and it is not surprising that there are migrants from Jharkhand to be found in Pondicherry (I met two young boys) as also in Nude Elly. In Nude Elly, in fact, girls from Jharkhand are to be found working as housemaids. They have their own church in Green Park, where they meet their fellow Jharkhandis on Sundays, worship, socialise, and exchange news.


Nothing much can be achieved by spending 87,800 crore rupees on Rural Development. It is just "pork barrel politics." Corruption. It is interesting that chacha manmohan s gandhi bravely told the audience at this workshop that "there must be 'zero tolerance for corruption' in the implementation of schemes intended for these regions." Then how come he "tolerates" so much corruption in his own Cabinet?


There is ANOTHER WAY - and that is URBAN DEVELOPMENT, that too, along the twin coastlines, powered by unilateral free trade.


So, imagine a libertarian politician at the helm making a speech to the Jharkhandis:

Ladies and gentlemen,

There is NO HOPE for you in these jungles. If you want to progress, you must shift to where the MARKET beckons - and that is the COAST. So, go, all you tough young men and women, go to a coastal town or city of your choice and engage in free international trade. Come home with your profits - and return again.

For those who cannot go or do not want to go, government handouts are NOT the solution. Government CANNOT create jobs. But government can DESTROY jobs - by overtaxation, by restrictive licensing, and by the OUTRIGHT BANNING of trades.

Your trades in MAHUA and HANDIA are banned because of the previous government. We are setting them FREE - alongwith ganja. Sell these lovely drinks and smokes to tourists. Let there be mahua plantations instead of tendu leaf collection. Smoke cigarettes. Smoke ganja.

And remember: If you want tourists to come, there must be PEACE. No tourist will come to where he can get SHOT! That is why there are no tourists in KABUL these days.

So say OM SHANTI. And let there be peace.

Oppose the Maoists - tooth-and-nail. They are zeroes even in CHINA!

It is either Capitalism - which requires peace.

Or Communism - which requires WAR.

Choose ladies and gentlemen.

(Wild cheering.)

Get my drift, dudes?


MORONS ON TOP!

Freedom Versus The Vote

The vote - especially in India - has nothing to do with economics. The vote is a purely political arrangement by which we throw out one set of rascals and empower another.

Freedom means economic survival - because when you are free, you can go to The Market and trade.

In India, we do not possess "economic freedom." Try to open a small beer bar in Nude Elly and you will find out. Forget about hash cafes - you cannot even dance in Mumbai.

This absence of economic freedom in India has been measured - and we have been ranked with other nations. You can view the ranking here. India is in the category "mostly unfree," ranked 124 out of 179 countries for which data is available.

This is the ONLY reason why our people are poor.

Consider the poor tribals in the jungles of central India who are now turning to Maoism and armed rebellion. Every tribal there knows how to distil a fine alcoholic drink called mahua, made from a jungle flower of the same name - but he cannot sell it!

Mahua could challenge tequila in the world market.

There could be mahua plantations all over central India.

These very tribals could be driving Pajeros.

So my question is this: Do we need Freedom? Or do we need the Vote?

What has the vote got us anyway - but slavery.

The vote has only meant more and more Legislation, and more and more "subordinate legislation." These have "empowered" the State Police, the Excise Department, the IAS-IPS-IRS bureaucRATS. Wee the Sheeple have got screwed in the bargain.

So, my fellow citizens, see Indian socialist democracy as a sham; a disgrace. Say "NO" to the fucking vote.

And raise a loud shout for Liberty.

Liberty!

What a sweet word...

Vedanta Must Get Out Of Niyamgiri

Thanks to a friend on Facebook, my attention was drawn to an excellent article on Niyamgiri by senior journalist Gautam Chikermane, who actually took the trouble to visit the place before writing about it. Chikermane begins by describing the two sides to the dispute:

On one side stands the $7.9 billion (Rs 37,000 crore) Anil Agarwal-managed mining giant Vedanta that wants to extract bauxite from the Niyamgiri Hills to convert into aluminium at its plant in the foothills. Standing by Vedanta is the Naveen Patnaik-led government of Orissa that wants the project to come up fast.

On the other side are the 1,453 people of the Dongria Kondh tribe, who live on Niyamgiri, a mountain they consider sacred. Their belief system hinges on an ecosystem that says everything on the mountain is sacred. From earth goddess Darani Penu (Supreme Goddess) and her husband Kotebali Penu to the lower gods — the arrogant Jatrakudi Penu, who brings drought; Bima Penu, who looks after crops and Takrani Penu, who protects them from disease — to its inhabitants, all is one. The now-popular Niyam Raja Penu, the god who protects the tribals from unnatural deaths, is one of many gods that the animistic-polytheist Dongria Kondh tribe worships.

Now, the fact is that these 1,453 people who live on the hill do NOT want to sell it for ANY amount of money - because they believe it is their God. Chikermane writes:

“When the factory construction (of Vedanta refinery) began, we realised that this will be a rakshsa (evil monster) that will devour our hill,” the Niyamgiri Suraksha Parishad President Kumti Majhi said. “This hill is not a thing to be sold, it is for living.” The analogy with James Cameron’s Avatar is true.

Once again, everything boils down to Principles - and my Principles are entirely based on the Inviolability of Property. The hills belong to these people. If they do not want to sell these hills, Vedanta must look elsewhere for bauxite. The planet contains lots of bauxite - it is a super-abundant ore. Vedanta is a multinational, so it can go to Africa for bauxite. But Niyamgiri it cannot have - because those who own it do not want to sell.

Such cases happen all the time. Suppose a highway is to be built and the authorities want to take over a graveyard or bulldoze a temple - and the owners object. Even an ordinary house can have a great deal of sentimental value that will make its owners refuse all offers to buy it.

Thus, the Naveen Patnaik government in Orissa cannot be allowed to misuse Force in this case. Anyway, this is not an instance where "eminent domain" can apply - for there is no "public purpose" here at all.

Chikermane, in his article, raises "seven questions" - and I will answer all of them.

One, should the world’s second-fastest growing economy consciously leave its statistically-insignificant but humanely-worrisome 1,453-strong group of people behind?

My answer: There are millions of ascetics in India - the sadhus, our holy men. Should they be forced to "develop"? Indeed, the most important question in Political Economy is the rightful domain of force, because all that The State possesses is organized force. In this instance, I believe force cannot and should not be applied.

On the other hand, The Market economy is about free choices. No force is ever used in The Market. People are always free to drop out of the rat race. There are many nations who hate work and prefer leisure and an easy life - like the Goans, whose motto is "Susegaad" which means "Relax." In the West, lots of people "downsize" and opt for alternative lifestyles. This is a personal choice. Peter Bauer, the great development economist, often wrote that in many underdeveloped nations he found that the people were not "poor"; rather, they were "needless." Chikermane quotes Kadra Bamunu, an axe-carrying farmer in the hill’s middle ranges, who told him, through a translator: “We don’t want any car or bike. We need only that which our stomachs want now. What we need, we grow.” This is indeed the "needlessness" Bauer wrote about. And Bauer offered the solution: Let traders be free to offer these people "incentive goods" - like a radio. They will then "work" to earn it - and "development" will proceed naturally.

On to the second question:

Two... is it morally right to leave this chunk of Indians without healthcare, education, electricity, communication? Just 1 km into the hills and my mobile connectivity disappeared. I passed a signboard near a village that said it “has been electrified under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana”, but there was no electricity there. I felt I was lost, the tribals couldn’t care less. On the way down, I met a midwife who said three tribals died of diarrhoea recently. Vedanta Chief Operating Officer Mukesh Kumar said it is impossible to get them to take medicines — they just keep it on top of their huts and offer it to the gods who they believe will protect them. “Can we allow such andhvishwas (blind faith) in our citizens?” he asked.

There is no proper electricity anywhere in India - because it is a State Monopoly. (While I was writing this post, the electricity failed, as it always does, every single day.) The Market should be allowed to step in - but, then again, if these people refuse to buy electricity, no force can be used to make them consume it. Ditto for mobile phones. As far as "education" is concerned, they are extremely fortunate not to have had their minds destroyed by it.

Let us now turn to the quote from the Chief Operating Officer of Vedanta, on andhvishwas. He uses the word "allow." Well, of course this should be allowed. I have myself visited the church in Vailankanni three times to drink the Holy Water which is believed to protect health. Millions in South India have also done so. You get buses in Goa bound for Vailankanni. Should this be outlawed? What about the ice lingam in Amarnath? Once again, what is "morally right" is only the question of the applicability of force. My answer: Leave them alone. On now to Chikcermane's third, fourth and fifth questions:

Three, does development have any meaning? So far, it meant an increase in per capita income that would come from jobs in the organised sector, largely in industry and mining. A large number of companies have taken up projects to help the local population where they set up industries become “employable”, through training and skills. Development has meant the ability to earn and consume goods and services. It has been an uneven development so far, but the trickle down is not far. What do you do when a group of people tells you that they don’t need any of this, can you force it down their throats?

Four, does it mean that if development as defined is rejected, Niyamgiri will remain a sort of tribal island — beautiful, no doubt, but an island still? The argument against it is: they don’t know what the benefits of development are, let them taste decent living, earn a decent income, then let them decide, right now, there is a consumption-asymmetry. Can we allow that, should we allow that?

Five, who will decide the direction of this development? If you think the answer is “free markets”, perish the thought. The Niyamgiri incident is a blatant joke on the free-market system. How can an illiterate, inarticulate, ill-informed group of people take decisions about their land, their lives against some of the world’s most sophisticated minds behind the state government of Orissa and Vedanta? The information-asymmetry is just too wide to even begin a discussion. Today, the two can’t even sit on the same table. On the other side, will natural resources such as bauxite or iron ore be left untapped because it is the natural habitat of tribals.

Mining is a "primary sector" activity - very primitive. On the other hand, tourism is a "service industry" in the tertiary sector, very advanced. Now that Niyamgiri is in the news, and these tribals have been likened to those in the film Avatar, it is not at all impossible to believe that the area will see thousands and maybe even millions of visitors. The picture accompanying this post is of the Niyamgiri hills. They look quite beautiful - and should attract visitors. Then, they will trade goods and services, learn from each other - and "develop." The original inhabitants of the beaches of Goa were all illiterate fishermen. But, thanks to tourism, they have become richer and "taste decent living, earn a decent income."

Chikermane asks: "Will natural resources such as bauxite or iron ore be left untapped because it is the natural habitat of tribals." Why not? The beautiful hills of the Western Ghats, especially in Goa, are more valuable as real estate than iron ore mines. Go and see Kudremukh, Chikermane. Has any "development" happened to the local population? I am confident that even if GOLD is discovered under the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo, they will not tear it down to dig for it.

Chikermane also asks: "Who will decide the direction of this development?" Again, the only answer is the Property Owner. We trade Property and Knowledge. This is done by Individuals. The "collective" has no rights here. The State has NO ROLE in "development." The area of development is the economic arena - and that is the preserve of The Market.

Chikermane asks: "How can an illiterate, inarticulate, ill-informed group of people take decisions about their land, their lives against some of the world’s most sophisticated minds behind the state government of Orissa and Vedanta?" This is the kind of evil nonsense that the Nobel laureate Gunnar Myrdal preached in his Asian Drama. It was Myrdal who sold to the West the idea that the illiterate poor of the Third World could NOT take correct decisions in The Market - and, so, these decisions should be taken for them by Central Planners, the English-speaking "economists" in suits and ties whom Myrdal considered an "intellectual-moral elite." The works of Bauer have totally demolished this ridiculous view. And the harsh reality of our "misplanned" India have only served to confirm it. Chikermane should visit any Indian market and observe things carefully for himself. If he does, he will see that it is the poor and the illiterate who take the most pains to ensure that they get the best deals - while the "educated" rich are easily conned. On to his sixth question:

Six, where is our political economy headed? “I am your soldier in Delhi,” Rahul Gandhi told a small, 5,000-strong rally at Lanjigarh a day after the Vedanta verdict. “Development does not mean destroying a mountain or oppressing the poor. Look at how we are bringing development to Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Our government in Delhi will fight for you.” I agree with his politics — if the state government, particularly its khaki uniform, has lost its credibility and the Centre has moved in to fill the void, a political advantage should be taken. Clearly, Niyamgiri is not the last such act on the political theatre.

Our socialist democratic theatre of the absurd is heading nowhere. We MUST make Property inviolable. Leon Louw, the South African libertarian who has helped many African nations write their Constitutions, once told me that "even if your Constitution does not guarantee Property, the Government can do that." Good advice, indeed. On to Chikermane's last question:

Seven — and this is the most difficult question — how do you propose to bring economic well-being to Niyamgiri? The Dongria don’t want it. But they can’t be left behind as India progresses. The two have to meet at some point and that point doesn’t have to be one of conflict. Instead of looking at the two players as hostiles, it is the role of the government, policymakers and thinkers to throw up creative ideas that help bridge this gap. Remember, Niyamgiri is not about land acquisition that can be fixed as Parliament debates the bill shortly. It is about choices — national, corporate and individual. To view it as an either-or is a grave error all of us could be getting trapped into.

I have already suggested tourism. What the Dongria people do not want is the conversion of their sacred mountains into sheet metal. However, like the rest of us, I am sure that they too would like to be better off. But this requires Individual effort and enterprise. All that The State must deliver is Justice. In his Two Treatises On Government (1690), John Locke wrote these immortal words:

Where there is no Property, there is no Justice.

So, let there be Justice. Let there be Property. Let there be Liberty.

And let us all unitedly fight against the Legal Plunder that our cronyist-socialist system is all about.

Examples Of "Natural Order"

If you read the newspapers today, you will get the impression that our country is on the boil: 27 central government police personnel have been murdered in Chattisgarh; and in Kashmir there is war on the streets yet again. What hope is there for "natural order" in such a dismal scenario? What we need is a military dictator, you might think.

So let me tell you about the oasis of peace where I have been living for 6 years now: Canacona, South Goa. Canacona is about 350 square kilometres in size, with a population of about 100,000. Yet for this entire area, there is just ONE police station. And for those who staff this police station, there is little or no work, because of the "natural order."

Chaudi is the only "town" in Canacona, 3 km from where I live. I drive there for most of my needs. The police station is not in Chaudi; rather, it is a few kilometres further south, closer to the Karnataka border. It is an imposing building on an elevation abutting the highway, NH 17. A friend went to this police station the other day to file a report about a lost share certificate. Here is what she had to say after that.

First, that nothing much was going on in the police station. The guy at the desk was busy reading the newspapers. There were lots of other policemen just sitting around. She got her work done pretty fast and then asked the policemen some questions on the law and order situation in Canacona. Here is what she was told.

According to the policemen, there in no crime in Canacona. When the tourists come in the season, there are petty thefts of laptops and mobile phones. Apart from that - nothing. Even drunken and disorderly behaviour is rare - although the bars open early every morning.

Actually, even Srinagar and our forested tribal heartlands were like this some decades back. Everyone holidayed in Srinagar. Indeed, Srinagar received more tourists than Goa. I remember driving into the "core area" of the Palamau National Park in 1982 - unarmed and unescorted. There were four of us, including two girls. On our way we were accosted by a herd of wild elephants, with their calves, and I had to "off-road" the jeep to reach the forest guest house where we were to stay. There, we found fresh pug marks of a tiger on the riverbank.

That night, after a simple dinner of dal and rice, we heard the jungle drums. The sound was mesmerizing. The drums sounded pretty close so we ventured out on foot to look for the party. We were scared of wild animals - but what we found were peaceful, hospitable tribal people, having a big party. We drank and danced with them.

Why have things turned so bad in these areas today? The answer to that must lie in the injustices committed on the peaceful people by our The State. In Srinagar, the men of the central police have shot dead another little boy. In Chattisgarh and Jharkhand the tribals HATE the police.

Socialism is a philosophy of Injustice, Corruption and Chaos. It is this philosophy that has to be unceremoniously junked in favour of Free Markets and Private Property. And Liberty Under Law. Only then will the "natural order" be revived.

Horrifying!

I find it particularly horrifying that the Total Chacha State has decided to use the Army and the Air Force to tackle the Maoists in the jungles of Central India. Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi wants to "enforce the writ of the State."

In the meantime, the historian Ramachandra Guha has penned a thoughtful column on the ongoing crisis in Manipur, wherein he concludes that the best thing that can be done is to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. This Act, by which the Army has called the shots in Manipur, has been in force since the 50s, since before I was born. And there has never been any peace. Indeed, if anything, the "writ of the State" was never to be found on the ground. It is this scenario that our Total Chacha State wants to repeat in Central India. They want to thrive on chaos. They want never-ending civil wars all over India so that the sheeple have no other choice but to look towards them for a solution. This nefarious plan of theirs must be defeated.

Democracy means self-government. It means Liberty. It means the diffusion of power, not its centralization. It means politics solves conflicts, not bullets. The implications for the Maoists are threefold: the tribals must enjoy their rights to Private Property and free exchange; they must "self-police" their homelands; and the Maoist ideology must be tackled politically - which is impossible because liberalism is debarred entry into Indian politics.

Let us not forget that Chacha is a central planner. He overestimates the ability of the State's powers of compulsion and coercion in economic affairs. He therefore proceeds naturally to overestimating the ability of the armed forces to solve a mass uprising. We need a mass politician to do that. Not Chacha. He is taking us headlong into disaster.

Horrifying!

Crises Are Good For Them, Barkha

Barkha Dutt of NDTV has written an article on the latest Maoist outrage - derailing a train in Bengal, causing over 100 deaths - that advocates strong State action to neutralize the Maoists. To quote:

Like in any conflict zone — with the Maoists too— we seek a deft combination of battle strategy and smart politics operating on parallel tracks. When we see civilians under attack or poor jawans forced to be at the frontline of danger, we certainly expect our government to use force — both preventive and offensive — against brutal, senseless terror. Whether this force takes the shape of the paramilitary or the army; whether air support should be deployed to speed up the ferrying of troops and weapons — we may leave to the strategists.

Note the royal "we."

My friends at the Natural Order Blog have a thought for today that all of us should ponder over:

“Fear of disorder and love of well-being unconsciously lead democracies to increase the functions of the central government,” said Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville in a warning that should be heeded by all freedom-loving people.

Barkha Dutt's column is titled "Call a spade a spade." She wants to call the Maoists a spade. What about the Total Chacha State? Shouldn't we call the King of Spades a spade too?

In reality, such crises are great for the King of Spades and his minions in North Block - the "strategists" Dutt refers to. I recall a senior IPS officer from Assam telling me, in the early 1980s, that "law and order problems are good for us." He added that "we get more powers, more personnel, more jeeps and more wireless sets." Barkha laments the fact that poor jawans die on the field - but these senior strategists in North Block just shuffle files and make hay.

If I may pen my sincere thoughts on a "solution" to Maoism, then it is this: Get the State Police to entirely withdraw from any involvement in tribal affairs. I briefly served as District Superintendent of Police in Arunachal Pradesh in 1987 - and the great thing there is that I had powers only in the towns. The hinterland was beyond my control - and the tribals lived happily in their "natural order." That is why there is still peace in Arunachal Pradesh. This should be the model for all forested areas inhabited by tribals. Give them full powers over their lives and properties. Give them Liberty and Property Under Law. And then tackle the "ideology" of Maoism politically.

What will happen if the Maoists "take control"? (Actually, they are already in control.) They will then have no "enemy" to fight. They will have to govern under Law. With the right politics educating the tribals on their rights and liberties, the natural order will be speedily restored. Of course, this will require The Market - a social institution that no political party in India says anything in favour of.

Kamal D Nutt, Sher Shah Suri, Manipur, Tolls - And TAXES!

The ToI has done well by drawing our attention to the neglected and unsettled North-East in a thoughtful editorial. There has been an economic blockade of Manipur for 45 days. What struck was the conclusion:

A lesson from the ongoing economic blockade is the urgent need to improve connectivity. More and better highways must be built across these states to end their political and economic isolation.

There is no better way to pauperise a people than by denying them connectivity to urban markets. This is why the word "remote" means "poor". When we say "remote village" we imply that it is distant from urban markets, and that getting there is tough. This word, "remote," applies to the ENTIRE North-East. Indeed, why only the North-East, the entire country needs modern highways - inter-city, inter city and peripheral towns, coastal expressways, all in a "hub-and-spoke" design. This should be top priority. Not ditch-digging, miseducation, or free rotten cereals.

Autocrats in the past understood well the importance of roads - for without them there would be no trade, and without the trade there would be no taxes. There are economically rational reasons why autocrats invest in "public goods" alone - so that they can pocket the surplus for themselves. Sher Shah Suri was one such autocrat, yet it is he who built the Grand Trunk Road from Peshawar, now in Pakistan, to Dacca, now in Bangladesh. This road is the lifeline of North India till today. Imagine North India without the Grand Truck Road. You cannot.

The late Mancur Olson, looking at autocrats in history providing public goods - "all roads lead to Rome" etc. - concluded that there cannot be "predatory states." But his analysis falls flat in India, where a Central Planner has employed a "scorched earth" policy on his own people. Read my very old column proving that our Total Chacha State is predatory, here.

Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi's vision of roads is well reflected in the views of his roads and highways minister, the great Kamal D Nutt, WTO-wrecker. This minister is looking to "contract-out" highway-building to private companies who will charge tolls. He is looking for ways to quadruple toll collections.

Hey, Chacha!

Why the FUCK do we pay (so many) taxes?

These include a ROAD TAX.

Kishenji Is A Nehruvian Socialist

The Maoist supremo, Kishenji, has called for a 48-hour "bandh" in 5 states - Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. A bandh is a shutdown of all economic activity and all markets - a general strike. It is not voluntary. Force is invariably misused to shut all businesses down.

What is generally overlooked is that bandhs are terrible for the poor, especially daily-wage earners. On bandh day they cannot sell their labour, nor can they procure their needs. Kishenji is flexing political muscle. But he is not helping the poor.

All political parties in India employ bandhs - especially the CPI(M), whom the Maoists hate. Thus, Kishenji's political tactics are indistinguishable from the mainstream socialist and communist parties.

But it gets worse.

Why is Kishenji calling for a bandh?

Answer: "To protest against the Centre's decision to sell ten percent government's stake in 10 profit-making Public Sector Undertakings."

Read the full report here.

What have PSUs got to do with the welfare of tribals? We have had PSUs for over 60 years and the conditions of our tribals has only worsened.

Kishenji has some other demands:

=> Shut down IPL

=> Throw out foreign banks

Does cricket matter to tribals?

Won't tribals benefit from foreign Capital?

So what is Kishenji, I ask?

It seems to me that he is a confirmed Nehruvian socialist. With his political ideals, he would be welcome in Parliament. He is just like any other pig from that pigsty. He probably studied in JNU - or Presidency College. I wonder which.

Anyway, I hope some tribals somewhere will read my solution to their problems - Liberty.

And I recommend a re-read of an earlier post on the Maoist vs Nehruvian phony war.

Sad, but true: We are faced with MORONS on all sides - in the State and out of it.

The fault lies in State education - which creates these uniform mindsets.

Homeschool your children. Save their minds.

The Cart... And The Horse

There is an interesting video I have for you today, of the Central State Police Minister, speaking to CII - the cronies of the Total Chacha State - on how their help is needed to "develop" the forested and mineral-rich tribal areas of Central India now dominated by armed Maoist rebels. The minister starts off asking: "How can we take development to these areas?" He then confesses that the "government development model has not been successful" and he asks his cronies of they can provide "another delivery mechanism."

The minister is nuts. He is putting the cart before the horse. Development can never occur through either State or corporate handouts. There is no "delivery mechanism" required.

Rather, The Market is about "production and exchange." Production comes first. These people must be free to produce for the market, and then be free to exchange their produce for procuring their needs. This is how the horse comes before the cart.

What do these people produce?

First and foremost, they produce an excellent alcoholic drink called mahua, named after a jungle flower from which it is distilled. This is illegal today. This ban must be immediately lifted and mahua plantations encouraged in the jungles. This mahua must be freely sold throughout India, and it should be seen as the patriotic duty of all Indians to patronize this drink.

Second: every tribal household is able to produce a rice beer called handia. For this too I prescribe Liberty.

Thirdly: In many of these jungle areas, especially in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, the tribals are growing ganja. This must be legalized too.

Fourthly: These areas are rich in minerals. These minerals do not belong to the Central State; they belong to these tribals. Private Property must be respected in law. Let all the royalties from mining go to these tribal communities. Let their local governments be fully empowered to allow (or disallow) mining. There is an interesting interview with Bianca Jagger in today's ToI where she speaks of tribal exploitation by mining giants in cohorts with the Central State. This must stop.

Lastly: As with minerals, so too with forests and wildlife - these belong to the tribals and they must be free to utilize them for their own benefit. They must be free to grow and sell timber. They must be free to farm and sell wildlife products - like venison. Our 5-star hotels should serve venison steaks with mahua to wash them down - and we will soon find these very people buying cars, computers and whatever else the cronies of CII produce.

This is how we put the horse before the cart.

These very questions plagued the British parliament in the 18th century, when the debate over free trade for Ireland arose. Ireland was then the poorest province of Europe. People were starving. And the British government denied them the freedom to trade. As public anger mounted, and volunteers were armed to resist the State, the government asked many eminent people for their opinion on what should be done, among them Adam Smith, whose Wealth of Nations had just been published - and hugely praised.

Adam Smith called for free trade for Ireland, even though it would hurt English and Scottish monopolies. He rallied against these "most absurd monopolies that we have most absurdly instituted against ourselves." He placed the cart before the horse. He saw that if the Irish sell their produce, they will accumulate Capital, and they will increase their consumption. They will survive. Public anger would recede. The Irish would focus on production and exchange, instead of spending their energies and their lives on insurrection.

To paraphrase Smith, we could today, in India, on the question of the Maoists, speak of the "most absurd RESTRICTIONS we have most absurdly imposed upon ourselves - and also upon these tribals." Liberty is the answer. All these absurd restrictions must go.

Further, Private Property must be the Law.

To conclude: I once met an Englishman at a rock concert in New Delhi who had arrived there after a stint in Kabul, where he had gone as a humanitarian volunteer. When asked about conditions in Kabul he told me:

Where there is no economy, what can a young man do but pick up a gun and join one predatory gang or another?

This is the situation in our tribal heartlands. There is no economy. The minister himself admits that the government model of development has failed. They put the cart before the horse. Government action can NEVER lead to development - but it can thwart it, and it has. The answer is to get The Market working - by giving these people the Liberty to produce and exchange.

There is no other solution.

Recommended read: My earlier post on Adam Smith on the Irish question.

For A "My Piece Of Earth Day"

My last post said it all: This is a constitutional crisis. This is a crisis for socialist public administration. This is a crisis for socialist jurisprudence.

The future of India belongs to Private Property.

There is no other solution to Maoist/Naxalite insurgency.

No longer must The State own everything while The People own nothing.

From now on The People must own everything while The State merely administers their affairs - a Private Property Natural Order. Also called Capitalism. This is also the "political" solution to Maoism, an ideology based on "collective property."

Today, I am glad to report that I have Barun Mitra on my side, writing in the Wall Street Journal that securing private property rights in the jungles is the only way to beat the Maoists. He talks about the Forest Rights Act, 2007; how this Act is not being implemented; and how it has seen "vociferous opposition from various environmentalists."

These environmentalists must also be seen as an enemy. Their God is the forest guard. They hate the idea of tribal people as proprietors of their forests.

Their great day is approaching: Earth Day.

I suggest an alternative day for all tribals:

My Piece Of The Earth Day.

That's right! Private property in forests and wildlife - and minerals.

The Natural Order Blog has an excellent post on the foolish ideas of modern environmentalists, who are invariably statists. They do not want The People to look after their immediate environment. Rather, they want The State to perform this function. Actually, as recent history shows, the more powerful the State - as in the USSR, China and India - the worse the environment.

So do read the post.

And watch out for these stupid environmentalists and their silly sentimentality over "nature."

The Private Property Order is also "nature" - based on the Nature of Man.

Capitalism (and cities) are Man's "natural environment."

So say "No" to Earth Day.

And let's have a "My Piece Of The Earth Day."

Cheers!

A Constitutional Crisis

A retired IAS officer, BS Raghavan, formerly chief secretary to the government of West Bengal, has written a column on a "much simpler solution to Maoism," wherein he looks the problem in the eye. He writes:

I am obliged to Deboo Bandyopadhyay, than whom it is difficult to find a person who has made such a deep study of Naxalism, for the information that, according to a knowledgeable scholar, Dr Walter Fernandes, between 1947 and 2004 nearly six crore (60 million) persons were forcibly displaced due to acquisition of land for development purposes, and of them 40 per cent constituted Scheduled Tribes. Out of a total population of generic tribals of eight crore, 2.4 crore (24 million) were involuntarily thrown out of their land, home and occupation. This figure constitutes 30 per cent of the total tribal population.

Official figures admit that only 28 per cent of the displaced tribal population has been rehabilited. Assuming that even this low figure is not an exaggeration, what happened to the remaining 72 per cent of the displaced tribals numbering 1.44 crore (14.4 million)?

We must all thank Deboo for giving his highness this information, which surely should have been at the fingertips of a socialist planning bureaucracy equipped with so much statistics.

But does this retired IAS officer see Private Property as a Principle that needs to be upheld by the civilian administration? No. He has a "simpler solution":

There is a much simpler answer to Maoism than even development, and that is good and honest governance and rule of law. There should be visible evidence that the government is determined to deal summary justice to the corrupt and the venal, rid legislatures and cabinets of persons involved in crimes, and inculcate sensitivity, empathy, responsiveness, commitment to values, dedication to the public weal and, most of all, humility in public servants from top to bottom.

Note that these are just pretty words, devoid of any understanding of the First Principle of Government.

In his posthumously published pamphlet, Interventionism: An Economic Analyisis (Pdf here, go to page 8 of the text for the following quote) Ludwig von Mises writes of what The State is expected to do in a Capitalist Society, which should be the direction in which most of us want to proceed, finding nothing attractive in either socialism or Maoism - or even Hindootva. It must be Capitalism Or Bust, which means a Private Property Order. Mises writes these important words about what The State is expected to do in such an order, something which should be of great interest to those who administer our public affairs. Mises writes:

In a market economy the State concerns itself with the protection of the life, health, and private property of its citizens against force or fraud. The state insures the smooth working of the market economy by the weight of its coercive power. It refrains, however, from any interference with the freedom of action of the people engaged in production and distribution so long as such actions do not involve the use of force or fraud against the life, health, safety, or property of others. This very fact characterizes such a community as a market economy or a capitalist economy.

If liberal, i.e., classical liberals, oppose governmental interference in the economic sphere they do so because they feel certain that the market economy is the only efficient and workable system of social cooperation. They are convinced that no other system would be in a position to bring more welfare and happiness to the people.

The English and French liberals and the fathers of the U.S. Constitution insisted upon the protection of private property, not to further the selfish interests of one class, but rather for the protection of the whole people and because they saw the welfare of the nation and of each individual most secure in the system of a market economy.

It is, therefore, naive to say that the true liberal advocates of private property are enemies of the state because they want to see the realm of governmental activity limited. They are not enemies of the state but opponents of both socialism and interventionism because they believe in the superior efficacy of the market economy. They want a strong and well-administered state because they assign to it an important task: the protection of the system of a market economy.

Even more naive were the Prussian metaphysicians when they maintained that the program of the adherents of a market economy was negative. To these supporters of Prussian totalitarianism everything seemed negative that stood in the way of their desire to create more governmental jobs. The program of the advocates of a market economy is negative only in the sense in which every program is negative: It excludes all other programs. Because the true liberals are positively for private ownership of the means of production and for a market economy they are necessarily against socialism and interventionism.

IAS men are like the "Prussian metaphysicians." They don't know First Principles. I had earlier written about the IAS Academy director Wajahat Habibullah, currenctly "misinformation czar," and his "misteaching" of young recruits. This should be seen as a crisis in socialist public administration.

What this means is that, if we want Capitalism, and we want the "Rule of Law" and "good governance" and all those pretty words this retired highness dreamt up, we need to stress Private Property as the First Principle.

This should be seen as a Constitutional Crisis - because the socialist constitution does NOT recognize Private Property at all.

A crisis of legitimacy.

On Adivasis... And Their Properties

There is news today that the Total Chacha State is testing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or "drones") which they plan to use against the poor tribals of Central India. Too funked to fight, eh?

But the fight will go on forever. It will never end.

Here is another report, this time quoting the Army chief, in which this dude says that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act should NOT be diluted in the North-East and Jammu & Kashmir. In Manipur, the AFSPA has been in force since before I was born - and peace is nowhere in sight. Ditto for J&K.

So let us not laud all this "tough talk" about using military might (like UAVs) against the disaffected tribals. They are citizens of India and the only solution must be political. As Jug Suraiya recently put it, "Pehele Aap, Mantriji."

Once again, I repeat the classical liberal line that Private Property is the only solution. Let us consider this extract from the column I referred to in my post of yesterday. The author says:

One positive measure taken in 2006 was the Forest Rights Act. But its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. As of end February 2010, out of the 27 lakh claims filed, 7.6 lakh have been accepted, 9.3 lakh have been rejected and the rest have still to be decided. There are also problems about recognising community rights and the linkages with Joint Forest Management.

The author goes on to make a damning statement:

The rights of the tribals to capture the value of the natural resources in their homelands have never been fully accepted by the rest of us. We displace them in the name of development, compensate them for the loss of their meagre livelihood but fail to accept that they should have a share in the rents that accrue today to mining mafias, forest contractors and corrupt officials.

The word "adivasi" means "original inhabitant." The very word implies that these people have been inhabiting these forests for thousands of generations; indeed, since before the Aryan invasions. It is unthinkable that they should not be possessed of Property in their homelands.

Dunno too much about Mao except that "power flows through the barrel of a gun" - but I know enough about John Locke, who said, in 1691, that "where there is no Property there is no Justice."

It is because there is no Property that power is flowing from the barrel of a gun. The answer is not the UAV; the answer is Settlement Officers who will physically visit the areas and award property titles - just as Munro did in Baramahal. There is no other way. State violence I condemn.

How does a Settlement Officer know who owns what?

One story I read somewhere is that of a Brit who approached a house to check out who owned it, and found a dog barking. He found out who was the dog's master and concluded that the same person must be the owner of the house.

It is as simple as that - if you know something about the science of government.

And if you don't - then there is the UAV, the AFSPA and all that endless blood and gore.

That is the choice before the nation.

History Lessons For Our Adivasis

There is a thoughtful column I found today on the Adivasis, the original inhabitants of the jungles of Central India, who have now turned to Maoism. The author concludes: "What the tribals need is not hand-outs. They need honour and dignity. Give them this and the pool of discontent in which the Maoists swim will dry up."

Honour and dignity are big words. What I had said in an earlier post is that "Private Property Is The Only Solution."

Let us not forget that the white people we love to admire so much today for their modernity, technical know-how, music, art, culture and political institutions were but tribesmen not so long ago. Why did the Anglo-Saxon tribes advance so far ahead of the rest of humanity? Once upon a time, racial superiority was considered to be the only reason, but this explanation is found wanting today when several non-white nations have also advanced - the Japanese, for example. What could be the real reason for the white man's superiority?

The Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has offered one answer: It was their laws that deserve the credit. These laws were based on the morality of Private Property and, further, these white people developed the system of "property titles" that were "representative" of real Property. Because of these property titles, land could be bought and sold, or mortgaged, and this is how De Soto says the white man solved the "mystery of capital."

There is more, of course, for their laws also protected foreign creditors in their loans. This is how Capitalism kicked in - long before the so-called "industrial revolution." Indeed, the East India Company came to India in the early 1600s - when the industrial revolution was still far away. But Capitalism had arrived in London long ago.

The conclusion: The rapid rise of the Anglo-Saxon tribes has everything to do with their laws, which respected Private Property, and nothing whatsoever to do with race. Thus, our own tribes can progress in precisely the same way, if they adopt the best rules of the game; rules that the Anglo-Saxons accidentally stumbled upon.

Do read the chapter in my Natural Order: Essays Exploring Civil Government & The Rule of Law (free E-book here) where I discuss the "origins of the common law." It is clearly established therein that Private Property is the key. It is therefore highly regrettable that the Adivasis are turning towards Maoism and "collective property" - ideas that will get them nowhere, and ideas that the Total Chacha State cannot fight.

Note that the Founding Fathers of the Republic did not see this. They took the "latest ideas" of the West - socialism, democracy and Keynesianism. They did not look at their ancient heritage. They adopted the worst ideas of the West.

It is also worth noting that it is these modern ideas that are bringing down Western civilization - just as Ludwig von Mises had predicted they would. Since the 1900s, Britain, USA, France, Germany - all these nations have gone the way of socialism and interventionism: what Mises calls the "hampered market economy." These are the very ideas that have brought them down.

There are many great lessons in the history of the West - lessons that backward societies ought to imbibe. If they do so, why the Adivasis, the whole of India could live with "dignity and honour," instead of being considered, by the West, as the world's most poverty-stricken and charity-needing nation.

Rukawat Hatao!

The news has it that our Total Chacha State has banned foreign direct investment (FDI) in cigarette manufacturing.

Banned?

Libertarians HATE the word “ban.”

All that should be "banned" are murder, rape, theft, cheating and not much else – and we ALL agree that these acts should be prohibited.

But cigarette manufacturing?

Are we supposed to smoke swadeshi cigarettes forever?

Didn’t our drinking improve with FDI in alcohol? Anyone recall the bad old days of Old Monk(ey)? Or Campa Cola?

In Orwell’s 1984, the cigarettes are terrible. Just as Indian cigarettes are terrible today. Shouldn’t foreigners be allowed to compete? Shouldn’t the consumer get a better deal? Shouldn’t millions who smoke bidis move up to cigarettes?

Should the tribals of central India be stuck with tendu leaves as their only source of income? Or should they be smoking 555 State Express in their mahua plantations? And surely State Express would be the preferred brand of these tribals, who are currently "Smoking The State" - as this report in the Express indicates.

And what about tobacco farmers? Should ITC be their only customer?

All this apart, banning FDI in a capital-poor country is rock-bottom stupidity. As with FDI in retailing, so with cigarettes, we only entrench domestic poverty by keeping foreign capital out. Employing more Capital per unit of Labour is the only way to raise wages permanently.

This clearly shows that any “FDI policy” is harmful. It makes everything arbitrary – and necessarily corrupt. Foreigners should be able to freely invest in India, and Indians should be able to freely trade with them. What this means is a “private law society.” Ministers should be forced to get out of the way of FDI.

Rukawat Hatao! Remove the Obstacle!

Free Trade.
Free movement of Capital.
Free movement of Labour.

The classicals called it:

Laissez faire et laissez passer!

Private Property Is The Only Solution

While there are many editorials and op-eds on the correct State Police response to the Maoists, who just butchered 76 cops, as I reported yesterday, the only item in the news that caught my eye is an interview with a tribal activist in Chattisgarh conducted by rediff.com. This is an interview truly worth reading, for it points to the fact that this Total Chacha State is nothing but a Predatory State; and its cops, in their "uniforms of brutality," deserve no sympathy. Nowhere in the interview does this activist condemn the killing of 76 cops. Rather, he points to killings and rapes of tribals by cops that always go unreported, that receive no Justice from this predatory establishment. One sentence in this interview is truly worth quoting, for it also shows that the Maoist ideology is wrong. It points to the solution, which is classical liberalism: Private Property.

The man says:

We should ensure that each and every tribal is made to understand that his or her land is not going to be taken away.

According to classical liberals The State exists to uphold and protect the rights of people to their Property. It is this ideology that this activist is suggesting as the solution, not Maoism. In fact, he says that he has nothing to do with the Maoists; he is merely a friend of the State-ravaged tribals.

I also commend a "quick edit" in Mint today, titled "Reaching out to tribals." This is what the "political response" must be, based on Private Property.

If you read the interview and the edit, you get the feeling that the Total Chacha State is a SHARK - a "land shark."

And, as I said yesterday, sometimes sharks too get killed. Our sympathies must lie with the tribals. Not the predatory cops.

Fuck Off, Judge

Bollocks to the Supreme Court, I say. These moronic and totalitarian judges, agents of the Total Chacha State, have ruled that we Indians do not have a fundamental right to sell liquor. Indeed, they say, it is the fundamental right of the Total Chacha State to “license” this activity, via its viciously corrupt excise department.

It must be easy to pass such a ruling sitting in New Delhi, where Shiela Dixit’s CONgress government monopolises the retail trade of alcohol. These judges, ensconced in their Lutyens’ bungalows, should look around this vast sub-continent.

Take Goa, for instance, where I have been residing for over five years now. The cashew season is on – and this means that most country Goans will be distilling urak, the first distillate of feni, inside their own homes. I will be buying gallons of this unbranded urak for myself. It is a great drink. Try to stop it – and there will be a revolution, Mr. Judge.

Similarly, take the Maoist-Naxal badlands, where the tribals distil mahua from a jungle flower of the same name. This is traditional knowledge – and mahua is an excellent drink that could easily rival Mexican tequila in the international market. But it is illegal. Want to placate the tribals who are up in arms? You must liberate mahua from the Total Chacha State.

My advice: Break the back of the stupid and totalitarian Supreme Court of India. Break every excise rule. Sell liquor illegally in New Delhi itself – and many do so, especially in the slums. Now do it in the restaurants. Do it in the grocery shops. Ask paanwallahs to sell pints. Ask chaiwallahs to sell whiskey. Ask the soft drink wallahs to stock chilled beer. Ask the Tibetans to sell chhung with their momos.

All this points to the huge amount of ignorance within the Total Chacha State. I have an earlier post on our “illiterate bar.” It is from this illiterate bar that illiterate judges are selected. What else can we expect? Another reason to reject the Right to Education Bill that Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi is currently trumpeting. It will only be miseducation. It will only worsen our plight. We don't need a right to miseducation. We definitely need a right to a drink.

Civil society must also call for a complete social boycott of the excise department. These extortionists should be told to fuck off. Tear up their licenses. Don’t pay them a farthing in taxes. REVOLT!

And as far as the moronic Supreme Court of India is concerned, I have outlined the solution long ago – a “private law society.”

We possess the right to make and sell alcoholic drinks. Let no Chacha State take these rights away from us.

Maoist Politics, Chacha's Politics, And My Politics

As a libertarian who believes in Private Property and Voluntary Exchange, I found the leftist author Arundhati Roy’s article about her adventures with the Maoists of the jungles of Central India EXHILARATING.

These rebels are all Communists in their ideology – and Communists and Socialists have always been part of the Total Chacha State.

Funny how armed rebels, considered by Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi to be the “gravest security threat to India,” essentially share the same ideology as that of their rulers. Obviously, then, the rulers’ ideology is as false as that of the rebels’.

However, what I really found exhilarating is the idea that the State Police are going to get a bloody nose in this conflict – and don’t they deserve it, the rude bully-boys of the House of Nehru? Make no mistake about it – the Maoists are a strong force, motivated and trained, and situated in dense jungles where the mercenary soldiers of the Total Chacha State can never be a match for them. There is only so much you can accomplish with mercenaries – and even Machiavelli understood that. In his own city, the good man Machiavelli raised a volunteer civil militia – which is what the Maoists are. All that is amiss is their political and economic ideology.

My conclusion: This is an illustration of the fact that not only has socialism in India failed as an economic ideology, it has also failed in Politics. Whereas Nehru and Gandhi were mass politicians in their own right, Chacha Manmohan is a backroom boy. From the backrooms, they try and remote-control politics – keep out the liberals and libertarians; maintain the BJP as the only alternative, a darker shade of black; deify casteism and reservations as appropriate policy responses; and keep on with the PSUs, including Air India; while turning all the attention on stupid issues like employment guarantees and “education.” And send the cops after all rebels – to crush them with force. This cannot work for long. And it is no longer working. Read about how Salwa Judum is headed by a CONgressman tribal. Note how "political order" is not being achieved by State Politics.

Of course, these Maoist rebels, and their sympathizer Arundhati, will have nothing to do with Capitalism – as practiced here. The story of these tribals is a story of exploitation – by forest contractors, by the Thapars, by the Essar Group, by the Tatas. This “cronyism” is not Capitalism – and mining must be governed by Property.

Thus, the only solution to the country’s immense woes is to extend liberalism to Politics itself. There must be a Politics in India that speaks the language of Private Property, of Voluntary Exchange, and of a Rule of Law under these principles. This is a Politics that can have a civilizing effect on the nation and achieve a great purpose – achieve a new moral consensus in the land. Then only can there be peace and harmony. And, that elusive goal of all politics - political order.

Speaking of politics, there is news that libertarians the world over are observing 8:30pm to 9:30pm TODAY as “Edison’s Hour” in celebration of technology and energy. Lew Rockwell writes of a friend who says:

The warmers are holding “earth hour” today. I’ll be commemorating it by turning on every non-green light-bulb (which is the only sort I have) inside and outside my house, from 8:30 to 9:30 PM CDT. In addition, I’ll run the washer, dryer, and dishwasher. Oh, and I’ll idle my SUV for good measure, with the headlights blazing.

I plan to join in the celebrations – and this anti-green politics. I hope you do so too. The Maoists should join in – for nowhere does Arundhati Roy mention in her article that they have access to electricity.

Energy is what Indians need – and the more, the merrier. Indeed, the more we use of what energy sources we have today, the more newer sources will become economical for use tomorrow.

Chew on that – and keep all your lights, fans, air-conditioners, washing machines, microwaves, SUVs, music systems, TVs ON between 8:30 and 9:30 pm tonight.

More Power for the Jungle People.

(A glass of mahua would go down well, too.)

On Their "Leave This Place Or I Shoot" Theory Of Society

There are two items in the news today pertaining to our indigenous tribal forest dwellers. The first says that they are to be moved out of their homelands to make space for The Tiger. An incentive of Rs. 100,000 is being offered – but not all want to move out.

This is a recurrent theme in socialist India: people have to physically move homes and hearths for the greater common good. During the Partition, my own people had to shift from East to West Bengal – for “democracy,” I presume. Or was it for majoritarianism? Or even “hindootva”? I wonder. In exactly the same way, millions moved from West Punjab and Sind. And millions moved the other way. And after all this mass movement, the greater common good still eludes us.

Indigenous tribal communities have had a bad time under The Socialist Chacha State because their great Constitution, which does not recognize Private Property as absolute, abets “legal plunder” – as in the case of “nationalization.” These tribals have been asked to move out of their homelands for various reasons ranging from saving The Tiger, to building dams, to quarrying, and so on. This must end. Property must rule.

However, Chacha is going the other way. There is news that says The Chacha State is declaring perpetual war against our forest-dwellers. A report in HT today says that 60,000 armed State policemen are to be unleashed upon the tribals of Bastar. The report is titled “Tribal Bastar prepares for War.” This bit from the report tells of the enormity of the task:

Bastar, 10 times the size of Kashmir Valley, includes the Maoists’ liberated zone — the sprawling, out-of-bounds 4,000 sq km expanse called Abujhmarh (the unknown forest).

What is also worth noting is this remark of the commander-in-chief of these operations:

“Five years,” said Vishwa Ranjan, Chhattisgarh’s director-general of police. “In five years, they will have to leave this area.”

“Leave this area?”

For what? So that State licensees can plunder their mineral-rich lands?

And 5 years of internal war?

I suggest an immediate and unilateral recognition of Property – on the part of the Chacha State. I suggest “political” solutions to this uprising. I oppose this internal war. And, most importantly, I must add that I do not think our poor, ill-equipped constables should be sacrificed thus, at the altar of The Chacha State. This is a political problem that needs politicians to solve, not policemen. But none at the Centre are “politicians” in any sense of the word, are they?

Democracy without politics?

Ha ha. What a JOKE!

Grant Them Liberty

Let us stay focused on the Maoist-Naxalite uprising, this sudden civil war. There is news of fresh violence – the killing of 4 more cops. This report also quotes the Maoist leader, Kishanji, as saying: “…the war is on. We will win the war. Let the Centre deploy as many forces they want,"

There is another news report on what West Bengal’s communist chief minister, buddhudeb, had to say, for these cops were killed shortly after his 2-day visit to West Midnapore, the district where all the rebel action is. He wants to “target Maoists at full-tilt and push ahead with development projects in the tribal belt.” This is the famous “carrot & stick” the editors of the Times of India recently advocated. I had discussed the errors in such thinking in this post.

What is worth noting is this para from the ToI report today:

On the second day of his visit to Midnapore, Bhattacharjee on Sunday prepared ‘‘a blueprint for offensive’’ with senior officials of the Maoist-affected districts of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura, ruling out any talks till they drop arms.

Actually, all these “senior officials” have lost their civic authority long ago. Some years back, maybe a decade ago, I met an IAS officer who served as District Magistrate in one of these places. He told me that his writ did not run beyond the gates of his colonial bungalow. There has been a complete breakdown in the civil administration. And what is buddhudeb’s solution?:

NO TALKS.

Just ask the State cops to shoot the fuckers, and dole out more and more of our money to the DMs to spend on “development.”

What an idea, Sirjee.

This is a repeat of Kashmir, of Manipur.

Perpetual internal wars.

And note that the scandal over the Jharkhand CM’s corruption involved mining licenses – once again a negation of Property. Jharkhand is where a police inspector was beheaded. I discussed mining here.

How does the average adivasi view the police? My uncle once told me the story of how he had a tough time obtaining mahua in one of these jungles – because, seeing his big, burly frame, all the forest-dwellers mistook him for a cop. Mahua is a spirit distilled from a jungle flower of the same name. It is an excellent drink. It is illegal – and the only economic activity allowed is mining, for which State cops are used to take over tribal lands.

Cops are not liked too much in these forests. And as for forest guards, the less said the better. Of course, cops are not liked too much in Delhi either.

There comes a time when a huge big State loses its legitimacy completely. This is one such moment. Things have come to such a sorry pass only because the personnel of our The State have persisted in doing wrong things, thinking the people will never revolt. Hubris.

I suggest that Kishanji instruct buddhudeb to withdraw ALL his forces and the ENTIRE district administration from West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Let these districts be free so that the people can set up their own institutions of local self-government.

Self-rule will bring about peace, and without peace The Market cannot function, so no “development” can ever be possible in a war zone. Keep that in mind. Also note that there cannot be a “civil government” unless the natural order prevails, for such a government exists only to “maintain the peace,” not to “establish” it. That is the task of “politics” – but then I repeat myself.