Re: Agreement ?

[Kush Khatri <free_voice@yahoo.com>]

What bothers me about this whole discussion is that I have not heard a
word about democracy.  The format seem alright.  What we are striving
to correct are not specific industires but society as a whole.  In 
this context, I do not see the basic problem is socialism versus
capitalism.  The basic problem is democracy. India never had
socialism--socialistic facade was used purely as a controlling
mechanism by politicians and bureaucrats.  I do not recall ever that
the peoplel of India ever gave the authority to the  Indian state to
own and operate businesses.  This was an arbitrary political decision
that violated the basic priniciples of democracy.  ECONOMIC FREEDOM,
is as basic to democracy as civil rights.   Mrs. Gandhi or anyone had
no right to natioinalize banks or any industry.  Re-establishing
democracy will take care of that.

Similarly, as I have said in my written papers elsewhere (which I will
be posting on the internet in a month or so) that despite the rhetoric
there is no CAPITALISM in USA or any place else.  Capitalism died in
the 1920s when people realized that businesses do not have the ability
to function without an intermediary.
Therefore, what we should say is that we believe in democracy which
guarantees autonomy to individuals and corporations within a set of
rules written on democratic principles of freedom.

The argument that deregulation is responsible for layoffs, etc. is not
true.  Secondly, comparison with united states should be made with
cautiion.  Regarding airlines ,for example, there was an ogolopistic
market.  These ogopolies operated inefficently.  Therefore, they had
to make necessary adjustments when competition came.  And although
some workers were displaced most were able to find employment with new
companies.
In India you have monopolies controlled by the state. All you have to
do is open it up to the highest bidder.
Regarding should banks be de-nationalized?  Ofcourse, because they
were illegaly acquired by the state to begin with.  Original owners of
these banks should be found and offered the first chance to take them
back and zero or a nominal price.  
Most of all States must be given the rightful economic powers.   
Again we should not put the cart before the horse -- the cart, in my
view, is free enterprise.  The horse is the state  (that is what I
have written in one of my copy righted papers).
Regarding corruption:  yes, one of the reasons for corruption is
unlimited power, but the other is opportunity and unaccountability. 
The collector in the British days had a lot of power but there was no
corruption because there was no opportunity plus the British had a
knack for accountability.  Coming back againg to a democratic
principle.  There is no absolute power in a democracy.  All people are
accountable.  And no one can use the power to cheat , rob or tyranize
the people who alone have the power.
Kush Khatri
---Sanjeev Sabhlok  wrote:
>
> Culled from Charu's views:
> =========================
> 
> Sanjeev: 		I am
> > 		proposing for the Manifesto that we are hoping to write,
> > that we get rid
> > 		of the word Socialistic from our Constitution. 
> 
> Charu: I agree entirely. 
> 
> Question to the group: 
> ----------------------
> 
> I know Charu (and perhaps some others) does not quite agree with me on
> socialism being the primary cause of many of our ills, but that is
> something I can live with; also I can continue to fine-tune my
arguments
> on this which are mostly being covered in my book. We may differ in
our
> understanding of how and why certain outcomes (such as corruption) 
are
> observed, but if we agree on not being a socialistic country, then I
think
> we have moved in the right direction. 
> 
> I also know that none of us wants to "duplicate" the US-style
capitalism
> entirely, but as a first pass, we want to get rid of the
state-controlled
> economy (in favor of a state-regulated one).  Therefore, looks like
most
> of us can agree to this. Am I right in assuming this, as we trudge
forward
> into the nitty-gritty of banking sector, utility deregulation, etc.?
Does
> anyone have anything to add/subtract to this fundamental point? 
> 
> If this is agreed upon, we can then proceed to focus on policies 
> 
> i) that will promote competition 
> 
> ii) while preventing "excessive"  concentration of power at any
level or
> with any individual (I think all of us are fearful of concentrated
power,
> some more so of power wielded by private corporations and others,
like me,
> of power wielded by government clerks). 
> 
> I suggest the following format to the Manifesto:
> 
> a) Preamble (why this manifesto is needed, what is its purpose, what
are
> the basic beliefs and goals). A page on this.
> 
> b) Overarching policy direction: This will include the point raised
about
> getting rid of the word socialistic from our Constitution. Also, about
> focus on competition, human capital development, rapid economic
growth,
> social security, cutting down the size of government in many areas,
but
> increasing its role in others, etc. A para or two on this.
> 
> c) Category I goals: broad description and outlines of methods of
> achieving goals such as education, urbanization, electoral reforms,
> macroeconomic reforms, and others already outlined in an earlier
mail by
> Utkarsh. 
> 
>    Category II goals: those which are important enough to be
included in a
> manifesto but not sufficiently important to rank in category I.
> 
> I think all of us need to work together (as we are doing now) to
build the
> Manifesto. Once the Manifesto is broadly worked out, it would be
necessary
> to work out an Agenda of Action, outlining, in much more detail, the
> methods to achieve the above goals. At that stage, one or more of us
could
> take ownership of individual areas and propose a two-three page
statement
> on that area to the group. 
> 
> At the end of this we should have about 50-60 pages, comprising about
> 10-15 pages of Manifesto and the remaining, the Agenda.
> 
> How does this sound?
> 
> Sanjeev
> 
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