"That government is best which governs the least"- Thoreau
I have always felt that a more astute observation about governance has not been made. At a time when the national ego seems to have been bruised by the Maoist onslaught, the Indian identity challenged, it is important to question if justifying state violence to appease a collective consciousness is a sign of Indian mentality degenerating into rabid nationalism.
Very few public personalities in India have been lambasted more in recent memory than Arundhati Roy. She's been labelled an intellectual bitch, commie, and has been accused of romanticizing violence. But having read a lot of her work off late, I'm pretty convinced that she's the voice India needs to listen to right now, not the least because in this intellectually bracketed warfare (either you're a Maoist or State) and for this complex problem, of Corporates implicit in dispossessing the tribals and of caste politics, she's one of the few voices bringing out the aspect of the human suffering of tribals. Let's face it, what has been happening here is systematic oppression of the tribals for the mineral rich land and the are just striking back. The maoist just happen to be taking advantage of the mess.
The only place I differ with her are on her deep biases against free markets. What's happening here is not capitalism gone mad, but the merger of the State and the Corporate interests - the original definition of fascism. In free markets (ideally) the power to decide lies with the local communities as a result of private property. Unfortunately, because of poor land reform in India, people living for thousands of years in the land are being evicted for the sake of corporate interests.
For some years now, there have been dangerous trends emerging in the behavior of Indian state. The UID is one of them. Purportedly, to root out corruption and improve delivery of government schemes, every individual in India will be given a Unique Identification card, forcibly if required. At an estimated spend of $35 B, this program looks like a totalitarian's dream come true. Not only is it a gross violation of civil liberties that the state is poking around in your life too much, but its a potential tool for mass control (and transfer of wealth from people to the governments IT stooges). Oh no, don't you think this is paranoia; in UK public concern recently made government cancel such a program. In other countries, such a move would be met with mass protests, but we Indians trust our government a tad too much. This can happen only when technocrats like ManMohan Singh and Nandan Nilekani think that the solution to a social problem is rooted in technology, and not in social changes.
What is needed is more liberty, land reforms, lesser power to babus and decentralisation. I always thought that the Indian state was somewhere between active benevolence and passive malevolence. Not so sure about that anymore. But one thing I'm certain of; changing an age old way of life forcibly in the name of development is not progress, regardless of what GDP says.
P.S. I would direct anyone who is interested in knowing about how central planning is detrimental to personal liberty to read F.A.Hayek's seminal piece 'The Road to Serfdom'
Very few public personalities in India have been lambasted more in recent memory than Arundhati Roy. She's been labelled an intellectual bitch, commie, and has been accused of romanticizing violence. But having read a lot of her work off late, I'm pretty convinced that she's the voice India needs to listen to right now, not the least because in this intellectually bracketed warfare (either you're a Maoist or State) and for this complex problem, of Corporates implicit in dispossessing the tribals and of caste politics, she's one of the few voices bringing out the aspect of the human suffering of tribals. Let's face it, what has been happening here is systematic oppression of the tribals for the mineral rich land and the are just striking back. The maoist just happen to be taking advantage of the mess.
The only place I differ with her are on her deep biases against free markets. What's happening here is not capitalism gone mad, but the merger of the State and the Corporate interests - the original definition of fascism. In free markets (ideally) the power to decide lies with the local communities as a result of private property. Unfortunately, because of poor land reform in India, people living for thousands of years in the land are being evicted for the sake of corporate interests.
For some years now, there have been dangerous trends emerging in the behavior of Indian state. The UID is one of them. Purportedly, to root out corruption and improve delivery of government schemes, every individual in India will be given a Unique Identification card, forcibly if required. At an estimated spend of $35 B, this program looks like a totalitarian's dream come true. Not only is it a gross violation of civil liberties that the state is poking around in your life too much, but its a potential tool for mass control (and transfer of wealth from people to the governments IT stooges). Oh no, don't you think this is paranoia; in UK public concern recently made government cancel such a program. In other countries, such a move would be met with mass protests, but we Indians trust our government a tad too much. This can happen only when technocrats like ManMohan Singh and Nandan Nilekani think that the solution to a social problem is rooted in technology, and not in social changes.
What is needed is more liberty, land reforms, lesser power to babus and decentralisation. I always thought that the Indian state was somewhere between active benevolence and passive malevolence. Not so sure about that anymore. But one thing I'm certain of; changing an age old way of life forcibly in the name of development is not progress, regardless of what GDP says.
P.S. I would direct anyone who is interested in knowing about how central planning is detrimental to personal liberty to read F.A.Hayek's seminal piece 'The Road to Serfdom'
7 comments:
I would differ on your view about UID or any such technology based solutions for India. We as Indians are a very diverse and confused lot. Its very difficult to tell what would click and what would flop. Take mobile phone and bollywood box office for example. So, I would rather see it as an attempt to solve the problem and wait for the results.
@ Bhandara - Let me point out a crucial difference between say UID and mobile phone as both are rooted in technology. Who is the prime promoter - for mobile telephony it is the private market who are answerable to consumers; for UID its the Indian government; if you think the govt is just as answerable (practically) you gotta be kidding me. Besides, the purview of UID is much more broad than keeping tabs on your phone calls. Lastly, can we afford such an expensive project? I think its an exercise in technological brilliance but misled and wasteful
Maybe I should have brought out the case against UID better. But I still feel a social problem should be addressed using social & political changes.
Dude, excellent argument and analysis. Hope some sense prevails in the intelligentsia and they force the govt. to abandon this idiotic project else we will have a "1984" scenario in our own backyard!
I have tried explaining it to lot of people but somehow they don't seem to get it!!
Please peruse https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://uidai.gov.in/documents/Strategy_Overveiw-001.pdf
and let us know where it implies "every individual in India will be given a Unique Identification card, forcibly if required." When it clearly states "Enrolment will not be mandated"
@ Gajendra - Thanks and I know how difficult it is to make people see our point, mainly because a lot of people simply have no sense of history and no perspective on how totalitarian societies came about.
@ Anonymous - Let me start by conceding that this blog is more of an opinion than a well researched piece. And in that context i graciously accept that I was a little mis informed as i read about mandatory enrollment in certain sections of media. Having said that, i would reiterate that in its scope UID is absolutely dangerous, a gross violation of civil liberties, and in my view a wasteful endeavor. If you have read anything about how totalitarianism came to be under Stalin and how mass controlled societies work, you would be naive to thin that this tool cannot be misused.
Now, do we want it to be left to the character of India's ruling elite and believe them is up to you. I for one, don't, history has too many precedents against such a thing.
Arundathi Roy’s views on handling the Naxal problem deserve attention. One might not be in agreement with all her ideas, but she has some very good suggestions.
On market economy, I happened to read a book by Galbraith, “The economics of innocent fraud – Truth for our time”. It makes interesting reading on the metamorphosis of capitalism into its new label, “market economy”. Galbraith is no commie.
On UID, its abuse, dangerous and important as it certainly is, more serious is the deceit inherent in its commencement and propagation. National biometric ID card systems in USA & UK had as their originators, Bush and Blair, both of whom have been accused by their people of lying on WMD and leading their countries into the disastrous Iraq war. Nearer home, our very own Ex-home minister, Advani is the father of the Multipurpose National Identity Card, [MNIC], UID's predecessor. His security officer has testified to the lies he said on the Babri Masjid demolition. His colleague, Jaswant Singh has spoken of Advani’s “economizing of the truth” in the Kandahar hijacking. UID's pedigree is thus from lies. No wonder it is projected as a pro-poor initiative, while the truth is anything other than this.
That an ex-corporate honcho from a company with a media image for ethics should be driving this initiative in a rather poor attempt at fooling all the people all the time, is astonishing.
@ Matthew - Thanks a lot for adding those comments. I had no idea as to the precedent to UID in the previous government. If you have written anything on the lines of UID or know of other critiques, please point me to them.
On Nilekani leading this initiative, I was a bit surprised too. But as I have come to believe, any corporate entity must necessarily be doubted, if only at the risk of being a devil's advocate.
Nilekani notwithstanding, a looming danger it sure is.
Post a Comment