Yesterday’s post concluded by looking at the “tension between Liberty and Democracy at the heart of the ongoing US elections.”
Today, let us look at “unfree India,” where elections are
over a year away, and ask ourselves: “Which ‘political party’ do we vote for?”
For almost two decades now, our Central State has been run
by one or the other of two “coalitions” – UPA and NDA – and now that the
CONgress-led UPA has completely disgraced itself, will be BJP-led NDA be any
better?
The “oldest ally” of the BJP is the Bal Thackeray-led Shiv
Sena – and this sub-nationalist, chauvinist, as well as authoritarian “popular
politician” of Mumbai (not Bombay, mind you!) has been in the news in recent
days for two statements he has made.
First: He has said, in more or less these exact words,
that if he is given control over the Indian Army he can fix everything in this
country within a few months.
Has the Indian Army managed to “restore order” in either
Kashmir or Manipur in the decades they have been there, armed with “special
powers,” which means what ought to be rightly called “martial law”?
What is the Indian Army meant for? Internal order? Or
defence against “external aggression”?
And what is “civil government”?
Have over 200 battalions of Central “para-military forces”
(part of the State Police) secured internal order – even in Thackeray’s
Maharashtra? Or do we read, every single day, of CRPF personnel getting KILLED
somewhere or the other? And, let us never forget, the number of CIVILIANS GETTING KILLED either - without trial. LAWLESSNESS!
I just read the other day of some Shiv Sena (or their two
offshoots) “troops” vandalising a TV studio in Bombay because they were showing
Pakistani musicians perform. LAWLESSNESS!
What will happen if such a “popular politician” – leader
of a “recognized political party,” one that is the oldest ally of the BJP,
grabs a-hold of the Indian Army?
Let us leave aside the Shiv Sena’s “hate speech” against
Biharis and Bangladeshis – for they started off their career in political
chauvinism against South Indians, actually – but the NDA seems to be not just
“fascistic,” but also COMPLETELY LAWLESS.
Thackeray’s second statement was his endorsement of the
BJP’s Sushma Swaraj as “prime ministerial candidate” of the NDA. She was known
to be “close” to the BJP chief minister of Karnataka who was forced to quit
over illegal iron ore mining. But let us leave that aside and ask ourselves the
more important question:
Given that both the UPA as well as the NDA are but TWO
SHADES OF VERY DARK BLACK, would we not be better off with LIBERTY?
Recall some recent posts – one, on consensual trades based
on the Inviolability of Private Property being the “source of order”; second,
on how socialist-interventionist LAWLESSNESS that is forever violating private
property (which is RAPE) is the root cause of our current “highest degree of disorder”; and third, that without ECONOMIC FREEDOM the vote is meaningless – a
mere “ticket to slavery” – which is why colonial Hong Kong flourished.
Allow me to now elaborate on why Liberty will never be
“lawlessness” – which is what we are suffering from today. Our current “highest
degree of disorder” does not require a strongman like Bal Thackeray with a
“military solution.” Most definitely not! On the contrary, all it requires is a
“private law society” based on the pillars of Property, Contracts, and Torts.
With relief in torts, we as a people will also not be
forced to rely on a monopolistic, corrupt, and completely failed “criminal
justice system.” I have explained this in an old column. But the recent case of
an accidental fire at a fireworks factory in Sivakasi drives my point home, for
we have been reading of such “accidents” year after year for decades on end. In
this case too, the proprietor of the factory has been “arrested.” With torts,
the “victims” – or their families – would receive financial compensation
immediately, in a “civil court.” This
would serve as an extremely strong “deterrent” – and reduce the occurrence of
such accidents.
The point is: We will be secure and protected in a
“private law society” – without either the Indian Army or the Indian Police!
Now, since civilization can flourish only through the
accumulation of capital, the most important issue facing a grotesquely poor
nation-state like India is FREEDOM IN THE CHOICE OF MEDIA OF EXCHANGE.
Both the paper Euro and the paper US dollar are probably
going to see further inflation – which will “boost stock markets,” of course –
but this vast sub-continent comprising over a billion people, almost all of
them miserably poor, the continuation of the “political” game of welfarism
financed through inflation has got to end. All the indicators of “production”
are down. Even civil aviation as well as mobile phone connections are down – so
what does that portend, but economic catastrophe.
So, do read my “The case for private money.”
As also this post quoting from Hans Sennholz’s Freedom
and Money which is titled "The Real Plunderers."
This is precisely the area that has brought down the
advanced West. So, if we in this poverty-stricken sub-continent want to escape
to a better life, we need to think of Liberty, including especially the freedom to choose media of exchange - and reject this socialist-centralised-welfarist-inflationist-interventionist Lawless Democracy.
I also have a recent post on how the money and banking problem is easily solved by the natural laws of the natural order - that is, Property and Contract.
As the USSA thinks in this direction, and if we do, too,
the rest of the world will surely tune in. In Germany, I read that a court is
going to decide in a day or two whether Angela Merkel’s “bailouts” of other EU
members’ banks are “constitutional.” Japan – saddled with democracy because of
the US, is also in a mess. The Chinese, without democracy, are in a mess – and
they have to decide what is the best way to proceed.
Tomorrow: As promised, a brief history of how the world
has come to such a sorry pass.
