Apart form this FINANCIAL TERRORISM, these paper dollars
are also engaged in the “real thing” – and Hilary Clinton has asked for $2
billion for Pakistan: to fight “terrorism” with “state terrorism” while
financially supporting the Army that rules that country. Add Afghanistan to the
list.
I have compared the British Empire - that is, to Lawrence's good men who brought Law, mapped properties, and obtained agreement to pay taxes - to modern USSA's "drone warfare" in this "frontier area" now called "Af-Pak" in this recent post, which begins with the question:
But BEWARE! Because the health of the State lies precisely in this chaos, disorder, and war, as it makes everyone look upon them for providing solutions to the problems they themselves have caused - as I have pointed out in a recent post.
The following quote from Ludwig von Mises' Nation, State, and Economy reveals what is actually fomenting all these wars - which is DEMAND, backed by "funny money":
I have compared the British Empire - that is, to Lawrence's good men who brought Law, mapped properties, and obtained agreement to pay taxes - to modern USSA's "drone warfare" in this "frontier area" now called "Af-Pak" in this recent post, which begins with the question:
Who really even "likes" America anymore?
But BEWARE! Because the health of the State lies precisely in this chaos, disorder, and war, as it makes everyone look upon them for providing solutions to the problems they themselves have caused - as I have pointed out in a recent post.
The following quote from Ludwig von Mises' Nation, State, and Economy reveals what is actually fomenting all these wars - which is DEMAND, backed by "funny money":
The armament industry created militarism and imperialism, however, just as little as, say, the distilleries created alcoholism or publishing houses trashy literature. The supply of weapons did not call forth the demand, but rather the other way around.
But if you read Swaminathan Aiyar’s latest column you find him
writing as though inflation is NOT “deliberate policy.” Good thing he calls his
stuff “Swaminomics,” for it has NOTHING to do with the Science of Economics. As for his conclusion - on gold, taxes on gold, and rupee bank deposits - he is ABETTING HIGH TREASON, nothing less.
ANTI-PEOPLE.
PRO-STATE.
As I just explained, decoding the RBI governor’s
mutterings, “The RBI supports government growth by causing inflation.” Hence, I
called for an AUDIT OF THE RBI.
The lead editorial in Mint today is on a “march to Delhi”
by hordes of landless people from Madhya Pradesh, India’s biggest province,
with a population density far lower than the rest, and largely forested - which means "unowned land."
The editorial is AGAINST “homesteading unowned lands,” and
hence anti-people. It is pro-State – and pro-State Ownership of unowned lands by DEFAULT.
The editorial ends asking readers this question: Should anyone have the right to demand land for free?
Property does NOT arise from any "political right." It is NOT any State or Constitution that grants us "rights" to things we own. On the contrary, these institutions exist ONLY in order to "protect property" - which arises from LIBERTIES.
Just as we are at liberty to "homestead" wild animals, the same "Lockean Principle" applies to anything and everything found "in Nature" - that is, "unowned" - and which we then convert into an "economic resource" by "combining our labour and capital" with whatever we have FOUND in Nature.
Finder's keepers.
You discovered the rich vein of gold before I did - and it is yours: Law during the "California Gold Rush."
Hence, NO CHAOS.
NO POLITICAL CORRUPTION.
Thereafter, these Properties acquired on the basis of the Lockean Principle are titled - and exchanged through consent. The titled properties are what the owners have "rights" to - under "private law." And the civil government has to "protect" these naturally acquired rights.
Apply that to coal and iron ore mines, to oil and gas - and to the SPECTRUM. It will WORK - for the benefit of final consumers.
There will be NO CHAOS - and the "Natural Order" will prevail.
Now, apply this to LAND - and look around this extremely VAST sub-continent. Look first at the COAST - say, the Western Ghats between Bombay and Mangalore, some 1300 or so kilometres, with NOTHING between Bombay and Mapusa, the northernmost city of Goa, just 150 km long, with three little cities in its territory. And then proceed another 600 or so kilometres to Mangalore - and there is NOTHING.
NO TOWNS.
NO CITIES.
NO HILL STATIONS.
BILLIONS OF ACRES OF UNOWNED LANDS - both on the coast, including thousands of lovely beaches, as well as in the beautiful green hills to the west.
This, while all the old cities and towns are OVERCROWDED and slowly becoming UGLIER and UGLIER.
The Central Ministry of Environment and Forests has allowed a State-owned NUCLEAR POWER PLANT in this region, in an "eco-sensitive zone."
There is lots of ILLEGAL IRON ORE mining going on - in Goa as well as Karnataka, all of it with "political connivance," involving both the CONgress as well as the BJP.
Of course, Indira Gandhi's Kudremukh Company began it all - legally - by mining iron ore WITHIN a NATIONAL PARK!
And in Goa, casinos must be OFFSHORE - while they are usually the MOST VALUABLE pieces of REAL ESTATE!
So far, I am speaking of just one bit of the West Coast of India. What about the East Coast? What about the entire Himalayan Mountain Range - from Ladakh and Kashmir through Uttaranchal, Sikkim, and Arunachal down to Mizoram - and then, what about the other inland mountain ranges, in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, in the Deccan and even the south, from Ooty and Kodaikanal to Coonoor? What about IDIKKI in Kerala?
Where is there a SHORTAGE OF UNOWNED LAND IN INDIA?
Even around Delhi, all the keekar forests are UNOWNED.
There are unowned lands around both Bombay as well as Bangalore.
This is the SENSELESSNESS of socialism - an "anti-social" political doctrine. It causes chaos.
Thus, the TITLE of this editorial - "A march to anarchy?" - is OFFENSIVE, ANTI-PEOPLE, and PRO-STATE, for a march to homestead Property is the path to ORDER, while what we are now reeling under is precisely the "highest degree of disorder" imaginable, with courts unable to deliver justice on time, with 200+ battalions of "para-military forces" in the employ of the Central State not just helpless, but actually de-motivated, and even three or four decades of CONTINUOUS MARTIAL LAW in Manipur and Kashmir.
Anarchy does not mean "no rules." Socialism does - these "legislated rules" that do not work.
Anarchy means "no ruler."
BEAUTIFUL!
NO MORE BOSSES!
The EVOLVED LAWS of the Natural Order are Property, Contracts and Torts, as I just explained.
NO MORE BOSSES DOES NOT MEAN CHAOS.
IT MEANS FREEDOM - AND PROPERTY, for all.
IT MEANS CIVILISATION - cities and towns, growing naturally, without any "town planners" and their silly "zoning."
Most importantly, the laws of the natural order mean private capital accumulation - without which mankind cannot flourish.
This must therefore mean an END to Bernanke & Co.'s paper "funny money" financial terrorism based on Keynesian BULL - which supports government growth, while impoverishing the vast majority; and which CONSUMES CAPITAL, thereby causing DE-CIVILISATION.
Further, this lead editorial, in its very sub-title, MISUSES a "technical term" used by mainstream economists, the expression "public goods," which means anything from whose consumption no one is "excludable"; and further, when anyone and everyone freely consumes this public good, there is "non-rivalry," which means there is enough for all.
The best example of such a public good is a CLOCKTOWER - which all town markets had in the era before wrist watches. These did not always come from the public exchequer, though. History reveals these were very often bequeathed to cities by wealthy citizens.
PUBLIC PARKS in cities and towns are another example of a public good proffered by mainstream economists - though quite often these have also been bequests.
ROADS and HIGHWAYS are sometimes listed as public goods - but traffic jams in urban areas in modern times implies "rivalry" - and the only solution to this is "competition," which means not only privatisation, but also "multi-modal competition" in transport systems.
Of course, the COMPLETE ABSENCE of HIGHWAYS in modern India is indicative of something else, for HISTORY is full of examples of even TYRANNICAL RULERS who invested the wealth of their treasuries in such public goods - from Sher Shah Suri to all the emperors of Rome.
These socialist-welfarist central planners and steel makers have established a PREDATORY STATE for precisely the reason that they have steadfastly been REFUSING to INVEST in such PUBLIC GOODS, preferring to pour public funds down the drains of steel plants, airlines, and even luxury hotels.
Indeed, till not very long ago these socialist central planners had a wristwatch factory - protected by Customs Department guns! - and never have they invested in clocktowers for any of India's towns.
But since we don't need CLOCKTOWERS or even wristwatches any more, with the time easily available on mobile phones, the public goods argument is irrelevant to modern times.
Public parks in cities and towns can always be "donated" by wealthy citizens - or even provided commercially, as with many "amusement parks" and their kind, like golf courses.
Today, there is so much motorised traffic that private highway companies are best LEFT FREE to PURCHASE and HOMESTEAD whatever lands they need for their highways, and collect tolls.
Thus, "eminent domain" and "land acquisition" are ILLEGAL.
As far as toll collection is concerned, there are electronic methods nowadays, so stop-and-go tolling booths can be completely dispensed with.
A very important added advantage is that India will then be able to jump right onto the most modern highway technology - for even the autobahns of Germany are outdated. The US Interstate highway network dates back to Eisenhower.
The lead editorial asserts, in its very sub-title, "Treating land as a public good is a flawed approach." But unowned land is NOT a public good. Indeed, it is not a "good" at all. It becomes a good exchangeable in The Market only when someone makes it Property - by "mixing his labour and capital" with whatever Nature has given.
As far as DEFAULT OWNERSHIP of unowned lands is concerned, look at New Delhi - where 50 per cent of the population lives in overcrowded slums while vast acres of useless keekar forests are OWNED by the State's "URBAN land monopoplist" DDA. Ditto for every other Indian METRO city, which has its very own DDA-clone. And there are HUGE CORRUPTION SCANDALS over land in metros - the worst of them in Bombay recently, involving chief ministers, top bureaucrtas, as well as generals of the Indian Army.
But why do we have only 5 "metros"?
The USSA is 350 million people with 200+ cities.
What about "hill stations"?
The East India Company built 80 of these in 50 years - and they homesteaded unowned hillsides: to make the "mall" in Simla, for example, or Darjeeling.
The tea and coffee estates of Darjeeling, Assam, the Nilgiris, Coorg, Chikmagalur - these were all homesteaded.
Today, plantation owners are harassed by forest officials accusing them of "encroaching" upon forest lands.
Would it be better to pluck out the coffee and put back the jungle?
This ANTI-PEOPLE, PRO-STATE lead editorial in Mint, a financial daily, is thus IGNORANT of both Theory as well as History, and of LANGUAGE as well: the "meaning of words," so essential for every sort of journalist and writer to master.
In my book, any "civil government" established in any New Republic should be BANNED from owning anything. IF they need offices - they must RENT. If they need to hold meetings, including public meetings, then again, they must RENT. This is because they always WASTE extremely valuable real estate - as with Rajpath, Raisina Hill, and the Lutyens' area, while New Delhi does NOT possess any Central Business District (and "diplomats" have Ashantipath!). The same is seen in all the grand, old MUNICIPAL buildings - as in Bombay and Goa.
PRIVATISE EVERYTHING!
Mint is also carrying a column on "political debates" today, written by a regular columnist, but one which is so full of error as well as stupidity that it ought to have been canned by the editors. For it actually opines thus:
The EC, established by the Constitution and "protected" by it, has "authority" under the Representation of People Act to "license" political parties - and, other than this, all its reponsibilities and powers pertain to the "conduct of elections, for which it has a BIG BUDGET, to buy tankerloads of INDELIBLE INK, to buy ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES (about which some allege malpractices and "tampering") and STAFF, which is good ol' BUREAUCRACY.
The Preamble to our Constitution now says this State is a "sovereign, socialist, SECULAR, democratic republic" - so LIBERAL PARTIES are BANNED, while, strangely enough, the BJP, and its "oldest ally," the Shiv Sena, are not.
SECULAR?
In England they have The Raving Monster Loony Party - because there is still, fortunately, no legislation on representation. They also had a Communist Party once. But western democracies have always been "liberal" in the classical sense - which is why the Japs have been governed almost continuously by their Liberal Democratic Party.
In Britain, Margaret Thatcher, a follower of Hayek, was Prime Minister for over a decade. In the USSA, Ron Paul, a follower of Ludwig von Mises, was a presidential candidate on a Republican Party ticket - till he pulled out in order to "enlighten public opinion."
Indeed, had it not been for the CONFIDENCE of classical liberals then, Karl Marx would not have been allowed to publish his anti-property doctrines in England.
We are a "socialist, communal democracy" - very ILLIBERAL.
TYRANNY.
Liberal parties are banned - because these socialists are CONFIDENT of being wrong!
The EC is always a very senior IAS "knowledge proof" chappie - and they are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for this MESS.
This is why there are some 800 "political parties" in India today - and there are NO DEBATES on PRINCIPLES in Parliament, ever,
Right now the combined Opposition has taken to "street protests" and such "agitations" which only ADD to the "highest degree of disorder" we are already suffering from.
With so many contending parties, the vote is FRACTURED, and hence MINORITIES rule. Often in COALITION, all based on SPOILS.
So, while such "yellow journalists" in the corporate media make Big News of that nutcase Arvind Kejriwal, former INCOME TAX "legal plunderer" now in a Gandhi topi, and his allegations regarding Robert Vadra, who is not in either government or politics - and this EC will surely "recognise" Kejriwal's brand new political party - the REAL NEWS is about RAHUL GANDHI, who is General Secretary of the CONgress, and how the "right to information" petition put forward by Professor Madhu Kishwar asking for full details of Rahul Gandhi's foreign jaunts has been REJECTED out of hand by the IAS chappie in-charge, without assigning any reasons, of course.
So much for the EC - to whom Arvind Kejriwal can go for his political party "license."
The EC has NO JURISDICTION in the area of public debates on political principles.
The RESPONSIBILITY for conducting DEBATES on PRINCIPLES between SCHOLARS lies squarely with the Institution of the Free Press, for which we have only the Great Charles Metcalfe to thank.
This cannot happen inside their so-called universities, where everyone "professes" to the same thing, which is this unholy admixture of socialism-welfarism-gandhianism-keynesianism BULL.
So I absolutely INSIST that prime minister Manmohan Singh be called to debate principles with any Indian citizen who is a leading classical liberal or libertarian while offering myself as one of that number.
This is only because Manmohan has emerged as a "philosopher-king" with his "right to compulsory education" - and he is a KEYNESIAN, a former CENTRAL PLANNER, a former RBI governor, and a former Chairman of the University Grants Commission as well. His coercive education has been deemed "constitutional" by his Supreme Court - and a NEW TAX has also been levied for this purpose, duly approved by Parliament.
The need for such a debate is even more urgent because Manmohan is always SILENT. My DISSENT to his educational schemes is dated 2004 - and he has never responded to this critique, unlike Curzon who "blew RC Dutt's ship right out of the waters" when this junior ICS chappie had the temerity to critique one of his policies in a newspaper article. Curzon's rejoinder, in the same newspaper, was IMMEDIATE.
JNU turns out PhDs in Economics who are MAOISTS - many EXPORTED to Nepal, as IDEOLOGUES for the Maoists there!
THE IAS Academy today has "Piero Sraffa as Prophet" - implying that they churn out trained Maoists as well.
And there is this CHAOS, including FINANCIAL CHAOS, and then the HIGHEST DEGREE OF DISORDER as well.
Add MASS POVERTY.
LANDLESSNESS.
PROPERTYLESSNESS.
Unlivable cities and towns.
Such OPEN ARGUMENTATION is the way for parliaments, as also for courts of law, as also for philosophers - as with the "Socratic Dialogue."
My favourite philosophical dialogue is the following from Giordano Bruno, who was unfortunately martyred at the stake:
The Highest Seat is not to be occupied by any man - but by Law.
This is not about kissa kursi ka - what airlines call "bums on seats."
If any man were to occupy this seat, as through popular elections, his WILL would rule - and not LAW. Of course, he would have to keep plenty of CRONIES happy as well.
BUMS ON SEATS!
TRUTH about LAW - this is what must occupy this Highest Seat.
"The King is Under God and the Law" - was what European Feudalism was about.
But I am a firm believer in REPUBLICANISM, which requires good eternal LAW to be possessed of order, to succeed, and then to FLOURISH.
We need to establish the Truth - in Law. And then, in Economics; and finally, in Sociology.
This requires OPEN ARGUMENTATION between Manmohan and a leading ideological opponent of socialism - live on television.
The medium of television will successfully articulate this Truth far and wide.
NOTE: Since all human beings possess a "sense of justice" and the ability to differentiate between "right and wrong" as well as "correct ad incorrect" in plain, logical arguments, TRUTH WILL SURELY PREVAIL.
The editorial ends asking readers this question: Should anyone have the right to demand land for free?
Property does NOT arise from any "political right." It is NOT any State or Constitution that grants us "rights" to things we own. On the contrary, these institutions exist ONLY in order to "protect property" - which arises from LIBERTIES.
Just as we are at liberty to "homestead" wild animals, the same "Lockean Principle" applies to anything and everything found "in Nature" - that is, "unowned" - and which we then convert into an "economic resource" by "combining our labour and capital" with whatever we have FOUND in Nature.
Finder's keepers.
You discovered the rich vein of gold before I did - and it is yours: Law during the "California Gold Rush."
Hence, NO CHAOS.
NO POLITICAL CORRUPTION.
Thereafter, these Properties acquired on the basis of the Lockean Principle are titled - and exchanged through consent. The titled properties are what the owners have "rights" to - under "private law." And the civil government has to "protect" these naturally acquired rights.
Apply that to coal and iron ore mines, to oil and gas - and to the SPECTRUM. It will WORK - for the benefit of final consumers.
There will be NO CHAOS - and the "Natural Order" will prevail.
Now, apply this to LAND - and look around this extremely VAST sub-continent. Look first at the COAST - say, the Western Ghats between Bombay and Mangalore, some 1300 or so kilometres, with NOTHING between Bombay and Mapusa, the northernmost city of Goa, just 150 km long, with three little cities in its territory. And then proceed another 600 or so kilometres to Mangalore - and there is NOTHING.
NO TOWNS.
NO CITIES.
NO HILL STATIONS.
BILLIONS OF ACRES OF UNOWNED LANDS - both on the coast, including thousands of lovely beaches, as well as in the beautiful green hills to the west.
This, while all the old cities and towns are OVERCROWDED and slowly becoming UGLIER and UGLIER.
The Central Ministry of Environment and Forests has allowed a State-owned NUCLEAR POWER PLANT in this region, in an "eco-sensitive zone."
There is lots of ILLEGAL IRON ORE mining going on - in Goa as well as Karnataka, all of it with "political connivance," involving both the CONgress as well as the BJP.
Of course, Indira Gandhi's Kudremukh Company began it all - legally - by mining iron ore WITHIN a NATIONAL PARK!
And in Goa, casinos must be OFFSHORE - while they are usually the MOST VALUABLE pieces of REAL ESTATE!
So far, I am speaking of just one bit of the West Coast of India. What about the East Coast? What about the entire Himalayan Mountain Range - from Ladakh and Kashmir through Uttaranchal, Sikkim, and Arunachal down to Mizoram - and then, what about the other inland mountain ranges, in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, in the Deccan and even the south, from Ooty and Kodaikanal to Coonoor? What about IDIKKI in Kerala?
Where is there a SHORTAGE OF UNOWNED LAND IN INDIA?
Even around Delhi, all the keekar forests are UNOWNED.
There are unowned lands around both Bombay as well as Bangalore.
This is the SENSELESSNESS of socialism - an "anti-social" political doctrine. It causes chaos.
Thus, the TITLE of this editorial - "A march to anarchy?" - is OFFENSIVE, ANTI-PEOPLE, and PRO-STATE, for a march to homestead Property is the path to ORDER, while what we are now reeling under is precisely the "highest degree of disorder" imaginable, with courts unable to deliver justice on time, with 200+ battalions of "para-military forces" in the employ of the Central State not just helpless, but actually de-motivated, and even three or four decades of CONTINUOUS MARTIAL LAW in Manipur and Kashmir.
Anarchy does not mean "no rules." Socialism does - these "legislated rules" that do not work.
Anarchy means "no ruler."
BEAUTIFUL!
NO MORE BOSSES!
The EVOLVED LAWS of the Natural Order are Property, Contracts and Torts, as I just explained.
NO MORE BOSSES DOES NOT MEAN CHAOS.
IT MEANS FREEDOM - AND PROPERTY, for all.
IT MEANS CIVILISATION - cities and towns, growing naturally, without any "town planners" and their silly "zoning."
Most importantly, the laws of the natural order mean private capital accumulation - without which mankind cannot flourish.
This must therefore mean an END to Bernanke & Co.'s paper "funny money" financial terrorism based on Keynesian BULL - which supports government growth, while impoverishing the vast majority; and which CONSUMES CAPITAL, thereby causing DE-CIVILISATION.
Further, this lead editorial, in its very sub-title, MISUSES a "technical term" used by mainstream economists, the expression "public goods," which means anything from whose consumption no one is "excludable"; and further, when anyone and everyone freely consumes this public good, there is "non-rivalry," which means there is enough for all.
The best example of such a public good is a CLOCKTOWER - which all town markets had in the era before wrist watches. These did not always come from the public exchequer, though. History reveals these were very often bequeathed to cities by wealthy citizens.
PUBLIC PARKS in cities and towns are another example of a public good proffered by mainstream economists - though quite often these have also been bequests.
NOTE: This technical term "public goods" comes from Samuelson's Economics - a very Keynesian textbook that has MISEDUCATED BILLIONS worldwide over MANY DECADES - and NOT from "Austrian Economics." The expression "public goods," thus, is not to be found anywhere in Ludwig von Mises' Human Action: A Treatise on Economics that is over 1000 pages in length. But I am using the term here exactly as Paul Samuelson himself defined it.
ROADS and HIGHWAYS are sometimes listed as public goods - but traffic jams in urban areas in modern times implies "rivalry" - and the only solution to this is "competition," which means not only privatisation, but also "multi-modal competition" in transport systems.
Of course, the COMPLETE ABSENCE of HIGHWAYS in modern India is indicative of something else, for HISTORY is full of examples of even TYRANNICAL RULERS who invested the wealth of their treasuries in such public goods - from Sher Shah Suri to all the emperors of Rome.
These socialist-welfarist central planners and steel makers have established a PREDATORY STATE for precisely the reason that they have steadfastly been REFUSING to INVEST in such PUBLIC GOODS, preferring to pour public funds down the drains of steel plants, airlines, and even luxury hotels.
Indeed, till not very long ago these socialist central planners had a wristwatch factory - protected by Customs Department guns! - and never have they invested in clocktowers for any of India's towns.
But since we don't need CLOCKTOWERS or even wristwatches any more, with the time easily available on mobile phones, the public goods argument is irrelevant to modern times.
Public parks in cities and towns can always be "donated" by wealthy citizens - or even provided commercially, as with many "amusement parks" and their kind, like golf courses.
Today, there is so much motorised traffic that private highway companies are best LEFT FREE to PURCHASE and HOMESTEAD whatever lands they need for their highways, and collect tolls.
Thus, "eminent domain" and "land acquisition" are ILLEGAL.
As far as toll collection is concerned, there are electronic methods nowadays, so stop-and-go tolling booths can be completely dispensed with.
A very important added advantage is that India will then be able to jump right onto the most modern highway technology - for even the autobahns of Germany are outdated. The US Interstate highway network dates back to Eisenhower.
The lead editorial asserts, in its very sub-title, "Treating land as a public good is a flawed approach." But unowned land is NOT a public good. Indeed, it is not a "good" at all. It becomes a good exchangeable in The Market only when someone makes it Property - by "mixing his labour and capital" with whatever Nature has given.
As far as DEFAULT OWNERSHIP of unowned lands is concerned, look at New Delhi - where 50 per cent of the population lives in overcrowded slums while vast acres of useless keekar forests are OWNED by the State's "URBAN land monopoplist" DDA. Ditto for every other Indian METRO city, which has its very own DDA-clone. And there are HUGE CORRUPTION SCANDALS over land in metros - the worst of them in Bombay recently, involving chief ministers, top bureaucrtas, as well as generals of the Indian Army.
But why do we have only 5 "metros"?
The USSA is 350 million people with 200+ cities.
What about "hill stations"?
The East India Company built 80 of these in 50 years - and they homesteaded unowned hillsides: to make the "mall" in Simla, for example, or Darjeeling.
The tea and coffee estates of Darjeeling, Assam, the Nilgiris, Coorg, Chikmagalur - these were all homesteaded.
Today, plantation owners are harassed by forest officials accusing them of "encroaching" upon forest lands.
Would it be better to pluck out the coffee and put back the jungle?
This ANTI-PEOPLE, PRO-STATE lead editorial in Mint, a financial daily, is thus IGNORANT of both Theory as well as History, and of LANGUAGE as well: the "meaning of words," so essential for every sort of journalist and writer to master.
In my book, any "civil government" established in any New Republic should be BANNED from owning anything. IF they need offices - they must RENT. If they need to hold meetings, including public meetings, then again, they must RENT. This is because they always WASTE extremely valuable real estate - as with Rajpath, Raisina Hill, and the Lutyens' area, while New Delhi does NOT possess any Central Business District (and "diplomats" have Ashantipath!). The same is seen in all the grand, old MUNICIPAL buildings - as in Bombay and Goa.
PRIVATISE EVERYTHING!
Mint is also carrying a column on "political debates" today, written by a regular columnist, but one which is so full of error as well as stupidity that it ought to have been canned by the editors. For it actually opines thus:
I propose that late in the election season, approximately two months before elections, India hold a single party leader’s debate and three functional debates (with other members from the party allowed). The Election Commission (EC) is the only authority with the credibility to pull this off. The EC will be charged with setting the dates for the debates and also appointing a debates committee that would set the rules of engagement.
The EC, established by the Constitution and "protected" by it, has "authority" under the Representation of People Act to "license" political parties - and, other than this, all its reponsibilities and powers pertain to the "conduct of elections, for which it has a BIG BUDGET, to buy tankerloads of INDELIBLE INK, to buy ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES (about which some allege malpractices and "tampering") and STAFF, which is good ol' BUREAUCRACY.
The Preamble to our Constitution now says this State is a "sovereign, socialist, SECULAR, democratic republic" - so LIBERAL PARTIES are BANNED, while, strangely enough, the BJP, and its "oldest ally," the Shiv Sena, are not.
SECULAR?
In England they have The Raving Monster Loony Party - because there is still, fortunately, no legislation on representation. They also had a Communist Party once. But western democracies have always been "liberal" in the classical sense - which is why the Japs have been governed almost continuously by their Liberal Democratic Party.
In Britain, Margaret Thatcher, a follower of Hayek, was Prime Minister for over a decade. In the USSA, Ron Paul, a follower of Ludwig von Mises, was a presidential candidate on a Republican Party ticket - till he pulled out in order to "enlighten public opinion."
Indeed, had it not been for the CONFIDENCE of classical liberals then, Karl Marx would not have been allowed to publish his anti-property doctrines in England.
We are a "socialist, communal democracy" - very ILLIBERAL.
TYRANNY.
Liberal parties are banned - because these socialists are CONFIDENT of being wrong!
The EC is always a very senior IAS "knowledge proof" chappie - and they are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for this MESS.
This is why there are some 800 "political parties" in India today - and there are NO DEBATES on PRINCIPLES in Parliament, ever,
Right now the combined Opposition has taken to "street protests" and such "agitations" which only ADD to the "highest degree of disorder" we are already suffering from.
With so many contending parties, the vote is FRACTURED, and hence MINORITIES rule. Often in COALITION, all based on SPOILS.
So, while such "yellow journalists" in the corporate media make Big News of that nutcase Arvind Kejriwal, former INCOME TAX "legal plunderer" now in a Gandhi topi, and his allegations regarding Robert Vadra, who is not in either government or politics - and this EC will surely "recognise" Kejriwal's brand new political party - the REAL NEWS is about RAHUL GANDHI, who is General Secretary of the CONgress, and how the "right to information" petition put forward by Professor Madhu Kishwar asking for full details of Rahul Gandhi's foreign jaunts has been REJECTED out of hand by the IAS chappie in-charge, without assigning any reasons, of course.
So much for the EC - to whom Arvind Kejriwal can go for his political party "license."
The EC has NO JURISDICTION in the area of public debates on political principles.
The RESPONSIBILITY for conducting DEBATES on PRINCIPLES between SCHOLARS lies squarely with the Institution of the Free Press, for which we have only the Great Charles Metcalfe to thank.
This cannot happen inside their so-called universities, where everyone "professes" to the same thing, which is this unholy admixture of socialism-welfarism-gandhianism-keynesianism BULL.
So I absolutely INSIST that prime minister Manmohan Singh be called to debate principles with any Indian citizen who is a leading classical liberal or libertarian while offering myself as one of that number.
This is only because Manmohan has emerged as a "philosopher-king" with his "right to compulsory education" - and he is a KEYNESIAN, a former CENTRAL PLANNER, a former RBI governor, and a former Chairman of the University Grants Commission as well. His coercive education has been deemed "constitutional" by his Supreme Court - and a NEW TAX has also been levied for this purpose, duly approved by Parliament.
The need for such a debate is even more urgent because Manmohan is always SILENT. My DISSENT to his educational schemes is dated 2004 - and he has never responded to this critique, unlike Curzon who "blew RC Dutt's ship right out of the waters" when this junior ICS chappie had the temerity to critique one of his policies in a newspaper article. Curzon's rejoinder, in the same newspaper, was IMMEDIATE.
JNU turns out PhDs in Economics who are MAOISTS - many EXPORTED to Nepal, as IDEOLOGUES for the Maoists there!
THE IAS Academy today has "Piero Sraffa as Prophet" - implying that they churn out trained Maoists as well.
And there is this CHAOS, including FINANCIAL CHAOS, and then the HIGHEST DEGREE OF DISORDER as well.
Add MASS POVERTY.
LANDLESSNESS.
PROPERTYLESSNESS.
Unlivable cities and towns.
Such OPEN ARGUMENTATION is the way for parliaments, as also for courts of law, as also for philosophers - as with the "Socratic Dialogue."
My favourite philosophical dialogue is the following from Giordano Bruno, who was unfortunately martyred at the stake:
Pupil: Why must Truth be placed upon the Highest Seat?
Bruno: Because if anything else was placed upon the Highest Seat, it would be a Lie, and a Lie cannot be placed upon the Highest Seat.
The Highest Seat is not to be occupied by any man - but by Law.
This is not about kissa kursi ka - what airlines call "bums on seats."
If any man were to occupy this seat, as through popular elections, his WILL would rule - and not LAW. Of course, he would have to keep plenty of CRONIES happy as well.
BUMS ON SEATS!
TRUTH about LAW - this is what must occupy this Highest Seat.
"The King is Under God and the Law" - was what European Feudalism was about.
But I am a firm believer in REPUBLICANISM, which requires good eternal LAW to be possessed of order, to succeed, and then to FLOURISH.
We need to establish the Truth - in Law. And then, in Economics; and finally, in Sociology.
This requires OPEN ARGUMENTATION between Manmohan and a leading ideological opponent of socialism - live on television.
The medium of television will successfully articulate this Truth far and wide.
NOTE: Since all human beings possess a "sense of justice" and the ability to differentiate between "right and wrong" as well as "correct ad incorrect" in plain, logical arguments, TRUTH WILL SURELY PREVAIL.
