Monday, June 7, 2010

SLW diminishes us daily

From Gurcharan Das valid argument:

  • The real problem,.., was not with our economic model, but with poor governance. As a result, we have public squalor amidst private affluence. So, don’t blame growth. Blame the state’s inability to deliver public services, especially in remote tribal areas, where the police and forest officers tend to be rapacious.
  • Most of us who call ourselves liberals in India are tolerant of dissenting attitudes and oppose interference in the affairs of others but we do not generally oppose state intervention on ideological grounds.

  • We do not oppose the public sector for threatening our liberty, as Americans do. We oppose it for its inefficiency. Our problem is not of the “what” but of the “how”.
  • The future of India and China is mercifully no longer dependent on ideology. The race between the two hangs on the more practical question: Can India fix its governance before China fixes its politics? Because the state has failed to deliver in India, our policy makers increasingly seek pragmatic public-private partnerships. But, this is a slow process, for people are still suspicious of the market. They may not seek moral perfection in public life but they tend to impute good motives to government officials. They think businessmen make money for their own good and markets loot the unfortunate. They have trouble in seeing that the pursuit of profits can lift the general standard of living of the whole population. The idea is too counter-intuitive. Hence, SLW commentators are always popular on TV.

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