The predatory side of 'benevolence'

India won independence in 1947 from 200 years of British rule. But are Indians really free in the true sense of the term? The Indian Constitution says India is a socialist country ensuring that all the powers are concentrated in the hands of the state.

The Nehruvian vision was to establish a "planned economy." Did this vision help India become rich? Or did the almighty state itself become the greatest enemy to all the citizens of India, thereby perpetuating poverty?

Antidote 2: For Liberal Governance, which is a sequel to the acclaimed Antidote: Essays against the Socialist Indian State, not only exposes the fallacies of the seductive lure of socialism but also provides remedies for India's current predicaments.

It not only stands up firmly against all kinds of oppression by the state but also upholds economic freedom to be the most essential element for the prosperity of a country.

This book is much more readable and enjoyable than the first part as it is a collection of short articles that the author had written for leading newspapers.

Antidote 2 defies the general notion that economics is a dismal science, and on the contrary makes the subject enjoyable to all readers.

The articles in the book reflect classical liberal ideas put in very lucid, well-argued, clearly thought ideas accessible to the general public. Chakraverti uses enjoyable parables to expose the irrational government policies in areas ranging from roads, to education, to healthcare, etc.

Commenting on the author's style of writing, Prof Deepak Lal, the renowned economist, who has penned the foreword to the book, writes: "He is that rarest of birds in India: a classical liberal who can write lucidly about a subject that is all but forgotten""economic freedom."

The book is divided in ten sections, each of which discusses particular problems inherent to the Indian economy. For example, the first part is titled "Depopulate or Decongest?" In this section the author exposes the common myth that India is poor because of its large population.

On the contrary, articles such as "May Our Tribe Increase" argue that population causes prosperity. If human beings are the only species on earth who can create wealth, how can their increase be detrimental to the society, the author argues.

The second section, which is titled "Wheel on to Prosperity," discusses the failure of the government to provide the basic public good, i.e. the road. The author shows through numerous historical examples that the prosperity of any country depends primarily on the level of basic infrastructure such as roads being provided by its government.

The author points out that India needs a hub and spoke road design where all the tertiary towns and cities will be connected to the major metropolitan cities. This will help to decongest the major metropolitan cities, as people will prefer to shift to tertiary towns if they are well connected with the primary city.

The next four sections"""Liberty for All," "The Kleptocratic Indian State," "Reality Bites," and "Real Freedom"""discuss how the socialist Indian state is the greatest enemy of the poor. The author argues that India is poor today, not because it has a large population but because it adopted the socialistic pattern of society since its independence. The author also questions the common belief that the government is here to serve the interests of the common citizens. Grounded in the Public Choice Theory, Chakraverti makes the point that the government agents, namely the politicians and bureaucrats, are more concerned with serving their own interests rather than the interests of the citizens.

The politician's self-interest is to get re-elected and the bureaucrat's is to maximise his budget. The over-reliance on the almighty state has turned the state into a predator where its prey is the common citizen.

There is an entire section called "The Misled Indian," which contains prize-winning articles like "Teacher dont teach nonsense" (this is one of the articles which won the author the first Fredric Bastiat award for Journalism in 2000) that are essential for the concerned citizen to read, especially when the socialist state is currently taking on the task of education in a big way, levying a 2 per cent cess on all taxes for the purpose.

With the mid-day meal, they will feed bellies but poison minds, the author quips. The author laments that the education young students receive in India today is basically socialist propaganda.

The section titled "The Benevolent Market" shows how free markets alone can make a country prosperous. The author castigates the various draconian rules and regulations imposed by the state that stand in the way of India's prosperity, and calls for economic freedom. The author envisions hundreds of free trading cities in India as a roadmap for India's prosperity.

In the last two sections, namely, "The New Role of the State" and "Path to Prosperity," the author discusses the concept of New Public Management, which essentially means the hollowing of the state and the basic services to be contracted out to private parties.

Overall, the book is a must-read for all active citizens. It will not only make them aware of the false philanthropy of our seemingly benevolent socialist Indian state, but will also inspire them to participate in the second freedom struggle, as the author calls for, but this time not from any alien colonial power but from the Indian predatory state itself.

---

ANTIDOTE 2: FOR LIBERAL GOVERNANCE

Sauvik Chakraverti
Macmillan India Limited
Price: Rs 295