"One of the advantages of
being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."
—A. A. Milne (English, 1882-1956)
Word for the day
Coriaceous (adj)
Of or like leather.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Malice towards
none
Kailash Vijayvergiya is always misinterpreted.
Wonder why he speaks at the first place!
First random thought this morning
By out rightly rejecting the
points made by Arun Shourie, and even disparage him, BJP has proved his point.
The people who have observed L.
K. Advani closely, would confirm that he is not the one who could be silenced
easily. Be sure, that we would hear the echo of Mr. Shourie's views in LKA's memoires
which would be published within few months of PM Modi relinquishing PMO.
Economics in India is politics agnostic
Many readers have raised doubts over my view that in India
economic policies and therefore financial markets are politics agnostic. I am
though not inclined to modify my opinion. I would rather like to reiterate what
I have said on many earlier occasions.
A study of the history of Indian politics would suggest that
unlike western democracies only an abysmal minority of Indian voters are
strongly committed to a political or socio-economic ideology.
The political discourse in India is usually dominated by contemporary
issues and personalities. The economic issues raised during elections are
mostly confined to the slogan of poverty alleviation. In recent times
corruption has also become a popular electioneering slogan.
Perhaps, no political party seems to have taken issues of poverty
alleviation or corruption seriously. Therefore no one has bothered even to
outline a conceptual or ideological framework for solving these problems.
Ideologically, the Congress Party abandoned the most acceptable
and perhaps most suitable Gandhian Socialism in favor of Nehruvian Socialism
that was a poorly mixed concoction of Leninist central planning (central
ownership and management of resources and businesses) and British colonial
legacy (discretionary patronage to the faithful and loyal).
The model was certainly at cross-purpose with the constitutional
federal structure. Poverty, poor governance and corruption were natural
off-springs of this system.
BJP started with Deen Dayal Updhaya's Integral Humanism. However,
in 1990s it adopted Gandhian Socialism (which is not too far moved from the
Integral Humanism) as the principal doctrine. The present leadership has
however presented again a poorly mixed concoction of Integral Humanism and
Laissez-faire model used by some developed economies principally USA.
Politically leadership preaches "Human Being" as the
fulcrum of policy making. Whereas the executive is more focused on
"Business" and "Macroeconomics" as the central theme. The
conflict is for everyone to see. The consequence is that we seem to be moving
in no direction.
The people at the left end of the spectrum exercised significant
sway on the bottom of the pyramid in Indian society since independence. They
controlled most of labor unions. Though divided between Marx, Lenin and Mao
they still were the preferred choice of landless, oppressed and intelligentsia.
There was a time when being poor, intelligent (economist, thinker, poet) or
rebellious meant being communist.
The things however began to change in late 1980s post dismantling
of USSR and the German wall. The Lenin and Marx were relegated to the history
lessons. The economic reforms initiated in China under Deng Xiaoping's
supremacy, further pushed back the traditional Marxists.
Insofar as the Lohiaites (socialist parties occupying the left of
the center space in Indian politics) are concerned, they deserted both Lohia
and his ideologue Gandhi as soon as they came into power. Degenerated into
motley feudals they mostly have no commitment to any economic idea and mostly
follow Congress agenda.
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