My very old friend, Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, dropped by yesterday - and left behind a little booklet authored by Ravi Shankar Kapoor titled Freedom to Express and Offend, one that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this morning, and which contained the following on "the god that failed": Democracy.
...without the individual enjoying freedom of expression, democracy is reduced to a farce. Democracy is not just about casting vote and electing representatives for state assemblies and Parliament; it is a way of life: if you can't say what you want to say, it is democratic form without substance.
The word "parliament" is French in origin, meaning a "speaking place" - where people parlez.
Free speech, free and open disagreement on principles and policies - these are why these "houses" were built - in every old French city and town.
In India, because of Indira Gandhi's amendment to the Representation of People Act, only "socialists" can form "recognised political parties" and contest elections to sit in our Parliament.
Thus, classical liberals and libertarians - those who believe in the PRINCIPLES of Liberty and Property - they are EXCLUDED.
Things were different in Nehruvian times - when, though the CONgress dominated, there was the Swatantra Party, which espoused the cause of free markets and free enterprise.
Today, these "conflicts of principles" CANNOT be carried out within Parliament.
Thus, long, long ago, I chose the "para-parliament" - which is the Free Press, the Fourth Estate.
I continue to uphold PRINCIPLES in this para-parliament - and my readers will have surely found out by now that socialism, welfarism, and Keynesianism are in serious error, harmful for the prospects of our poor nation.
Where do we "debate" the ruling socialists?
In the West, apart from the para-parliament of the Fourth Estate, there also exists a very important "public sphere." There are open squares and gardens, like Hyde Park, and bars - the "busy haunts of men" - where ordinary people meet and "discuss politics" freely.
It has been written of Thomas Paine that he was a very poor public speaker - but he came into his element in a pub, after a few beers, and then his eyes would sparkle, and he would hold forth on Liberty, while everyone listened attentively and learned.
We in India do not even have these!
Interestingly, the booklet by Ravi Shankar Kapoor championing the freedom of expression - even to offend - has been co-published by the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung Fur Die Freiheit. They are the "think tank" of the German free market FDP political party! The German word for "freedom" is freiheit.
They have a huge "academy" in Germany - to teach their principles to citizens.
They are active in India - and in Pakistan, and many other Third World countries, from Cambodia to Peru.
But we Indians have no such party, therefore no such think-tank, no such academy for citizen-education, and no such foreign outreach either.
Everything here is socialist - and from The State.
They have a huge "academy" in Germany - to teach their principles to citizens.
They are active in India - and in Pakistan, and many other Third World countries, from Cambodia to Peru.
But we Indians have no such party, therefore no such think-tank, no such academy for citizen-education, and no such foreign outreach either.
Everything here is socialist - and from The State.
We are really NOWHERE on the Road to Liberty!
NOWHERE!
So, the question remains: How do we debate these socialists?
I hereby CHALLENGE prime minister Manmohan Singh to a television debate.
He has never won a popular election - and is a Rajya Sabha MP via "indirect election."
He NEVER talks to the Free Press - except once or twice in over ten years, and that too, to a carefully selected audience of junior "reporters," who asked him tame questions, which were surely screened in advance, to which he mumbled all the usual bull in response.
The joke about him goes: Manmohan Singh went to see his dentist, who told him: "At least open your mouth here!"
Without open debate and open discussion - which the entire citizenry can watch - this Great Conflict of Ideas and Principles between Socialism and Capitalism cannot be resolved - ever.
