The realpolitik of India’s ‘new deal’

The realpolitik of India’s ‘new deal’ by Sauvik Chakraverti 

Posted: 2006-07-12 00:00:00+05:30 IST
Updated: Jul 12, 2006 at 0000 hrs IST

Instead of discussing Professor Moriarty’s nonsensical economics on “employment guarantees”, we should consider what the true purpose of this massive expenditure really is. After all, Professor Moriarty is no fool. In this connection, it is useful to look back at when the socialists running France in Bastiat’s time (1840s) established national workshops to enforce the “right to work”.

What kind of “right” is that, anyway? Work is disutility. Workers need “rights” to the fruits of their labour—which free trade alone can deliver. Further, anyone who signs a contract to work has an “obligation” to work, while it is his employer who has a “right” to make the worker perform as per contract.

The proliferation of useless rights, including “human rights,” is a marked feature of socialism. These rights are supposedly legal entitlements to things that the state must provide. In this connection, Anthony de Jasay’s Before Resorting to Politics makes a useful read, for it establishes the case for “liberties” as against “rights.” With liberties we are free to achieve our individual ends, requiring nothing from the state via “politics.” The politicisation of life, especially economic life, will cease. Jasay’s little book offers the world the pathway to total freedom, ridding us of that great curse, politics, in which Professor Moriarty excels.

When I compiled a collection of Bastiat’s best essays, I invited Professor Detmar Doering to contribute a foreword. In that foreword there is this nugget about socialist France: “Among the things that went wrong was the establishment of state-run “national workshops” to enforce the “right to work.” These never really served their purpose, nor were they intended to do so. Rather, they allowed the socialists to organise support on the streets to threaten dissenting voices with violence.”

This indeed must be the true purpose of Professor Moriarty’s scheme. To understand how “politics” in India works, and how far removed it is from the “politics of the polis” Aristotle wrote of, I recount the story of a visit I once paid to Jaipur. I had to deliver two lectures there, but a problem cropped up because the then prime minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, also arrived in the city to address a “political rally.” Because of this event, it was difficult for me to reach the venue of my second lecture; further, many prominent citizens who were supposed to show up could not do so.

Hundreds of trucks and buses poured into Jaipur from the surrounds carrying Vajpayee’s supporters into the city. This huge assemblage of rural folk into cities in order to demonstrate political strength is a marked feature of India’s “politics”: rent-a-crowd. In Jaipur that day, the citizenry stayed put in their homes, and the streets were deserted. As Professor Parth J. Shah remarked, “it seems like Chenghiz Khan is in town.” Indian “politics”, “democracy” and “government” are very far removed from the Picket Fences of republican USA.

• The Congress party has always bought support from individuals and groups • Its ‘politics’ is based on ‘social justice’ and all kinds of ideological nonsense • Not only the ‘cost’ but also the ‘opportunity cost’ of such politics must be noted

Indeed, the curse of “politics” combined with “socialism” and “democracy”, based on the evil “ethic” (sic) of “redistribution,” has made the Indian state a purely clientelistic affair. The Congress Party, which ruled India almost uninterruptedly since independence, has done so by buying support from individuals and groups, thereby converting the “ship of state” into a “pirate ship.”

(Even I was once propositioned by the head of the Indian Council for Social Science Research: “How can we co-opt you?” An indecent proposal, if ever there was one.)

The Congress flag, which became the Indian flag, should be looked upon as “skull and crossbones”: the pirate’s flag. This flag started flying high after the introduction of “democracy” in local government by the British in 1919. One of the subjects transferred to the democratically elected thn was “education.” Philip Mason’s excellent book The Men Who Ruled India (in British times) says that the district collector felt his authority violated when the Congress flag flew atop the local schools. Professor Moriarty made his entry then, and he is still very keen on “educating” Indians: behold the “education cess.”

Thanks to this Congress “politics,” based on “social justice” and every other kind of ideological nonsense, every Indian city lost its civic character, and hoodlums ruled the streets. When Indira Gandhi was assassinated, Congress hoodlums took over Delhi and killed thousands of innocent Sikhs in revenge. It can therefore be easily concluded that the “realpolitik” of Professor Moriarty’s “employment guarantee scheme” is actually to hire more hoodlums in the cities.

I conclude this essay by offering some idea of the cost of this bizarre, horrendous, corrupt and nonsensical politics in this miserably poor country. In the latest budget, the total amount of resources allocated under social welfare and subsidies amounted to 1 trillion (or 1 lakh crore) rupees: this is the equivalent of spending 1,40,000 rupees per day, every day, since the birth of Jesus Christ. This, while the per capita income barely touches 10,000 rupees.

The opportunity cost must also be noted, for this politics is the reason why there are no roads in India. We Indians can’t sing “Hit the road, Jack” to the politicians who practice this politics, (though we would like to), for there is no road for them to hit! They campaign in rural India in helicopters. Professor Moriarty runs public enterprise (and doggedly refuses to privatise) in a planned economy devoid of public goods!

Holmes once said, “Rule out the impossible; whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth.” The truth is that this is a predatory state. It must follow that no parent should allow his child to be educated by Professor Moriarty.

(To those who never read Arthur Conan Doyle: Professor Moriarty was the biggest enemy of Sherlock Holmes.)

—The writer, a former police officer, is the author of Antidote: Essays Against the Socialist Indian State , and its sequel, Antidote 2: For Liberal Governance, Macmillan India.

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