Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them, said George Orwell. They also generate stupider ideas. A group of <em>lal salam</em>-type of intellectuals has come up with action plan ‘Mission Jai Hind’ which practically ends the right to property and ushers in socialism through the backdoor.
The action plan calls for the nationalization of all property: “All the resources (cash, real estate, property, bonds, etc.) with citizens or within the nation must be treated as national resources during this crisis.”
Lest it be dismissed as the rant of some Left loony fringe, we should mention that the votaries of this plan include such economists as former Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, former chief economic advisor Deepak Nayyar, R. Nagaraj from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Prof. Pranab Bardhan, and Jean Drèze. Then there are luminaries like author Rajmohan Gandhi, historian Ramachandra Guha, Ganesh Devy, former bureaucrat E.A.S. Sarma, activists Harsh Mander, Nikhil De, and Yogendra Yadav, Admiral Ramdas, and Lalita Ramdas.
For those fretting over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s <em>taali bajao, batti jalao</em> campaigns, the 7-point charter prepared by the above-mentioned grandees should come as a sobering influence. Come to think of it: what if they folks were in the reckoning today?
They were not long ago. It was Dreze, for instance, who imposed the rural employment guarantee scheme on India, the Magna Carta of slavery in contemporary India. By asking the government to do “whatever it takes,” the prominent intellectuals are instigating to arrogate more powers to itself and enact more draconian laws. For how else would government declare cash, real estate, property, bonds, etc. of citizens as “national resources”?
Could that be a peaceful process? Anybody with a little knowledge of history and general awareness about the country knows that no man or woman parts with their property without resistance. Most of the criminal cases in the countryside pertain to land disputes.
In the countries where these socialist ideas were put into practice, the consequences were disastrous. The collectivization drives in the erstwhile Soviet Union resulted in famines, massacres, and untold misery for the people. China suffered more. In all, over 100 million people died in socialist countries because everything, and everybody, was considered as a national resource.
Insanity has been said to be doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The self-appointed conscience keepers of the nation want to institutionalize insanity by increasing doles—universal access include 10 kg food-grain, 1.5 kg daal, 800 ml cooking oil, and 500 gm sugar per person per month for six months.
They also want the rural employment guarantee scheme to be expanded to 200 days per household, compensation to workers for job loss, and clearing pending wages. Plus, an urban employment guarantee for 100 days per person for this year.
Further, they recommend: “This could take multiple forms: job loss allowance for the salaried, wage subsidies for firms, crop loss compensation for farmers, and one-time support of around Rs 10,000 to hawkers, vendors, small shopkeepers to restart their business along with an ex-gratia of Rs 2,000 per month for three months to all social security pension beneficiaries including disabled, widows, old persons, etc.”
Who will do all this? And how? That’s not the concern of those who just want the socialist ideas to be implemented. Their message to the government is: don’t ask us how, just do it.
We are lucky that we have a government that treats these pinkish intellectuals with the contempt they deserve..
