Forgotten Speeches of GK Sundaram – Part II

This is my second piece on two part articles on speeches of Swatantra Party leader GK Sundaram in the Upper House of Indian Parliament as Member in the late 60 and early 70s of socialist era. 

He was a pioneering entrepreneur for several decades experiencing the socialist economic policies which hit him very badly. 

In way, he had suffered both ways in terms of losing personal freedom to do and also in business professionally. Unlike others, he was lucky to see the economic freedom that was unleashed in the 90s.  

Many people do not know that Sundaram was the one who exposed the political party corruptions indulged by Motilal Nehru in the pre-Independent India. Similarly, he exposed the political party corruptions indulged by Jawaharlal Nehru in the post Independent India. 

From the piece:

"Sundaram had criticised The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Bill, 1967 on the ground that "The development of big installations and their economic production is very well known all over the country and even in our country in some of the public sector undertakings we are going in for bigger and bigger installations so as to be economic. All other countries the world over are going in for that whereas we are going in the other direction."

Self-reliant India, as New Economic Model

Economist S Gurumuthy's analysis of Indian economy is always different and fascinating on many counts. In a recent Interview to a English magazine, he said:

"The illiterate economic thinkers and institutions in India, whose training is based on foreign ideas and theories, have not been able to come to terms with the diversity of India. The financial model applicable to listed companies is being thrust on the rest of the economy. The swadeshi approach calls for factoring in the diversities of India. Actually, jobs are provided only by the MSMEs which are the backbone of the economy. This was understood only after Modi constituted the Mudra finance plan. So jobs will be generated only through bottom upwards and top-down economic model which will suit only the cosmopolitan kind of society."

and on internal migration issues:

"This problem is there, but it is blown out of proportion. Let us look at the facts. There are 31 crore intra and interstate migrants in India according to 2011 census. Out of that 4.2 crores are interstate migrants. How many out of that are going back? Not even 10%. When you are planning a lockdown you cannot give two days or even ten days time for people to move. That would have led to chaos and stampede. Particularly when they did not know how long it would take to flatten the curve. So the migrant issue is a creation of the media and the opposition."

Forgotten Speeches of GK Sundaram – Part I

                                           GK Sundaram-1914-2009

I have piece on GK Sundaram's forgotten speeches delivered in Indian Parliament when he was leader of Swatantra Party during the socialist era of Indira Gandhi.

Here is a slice from the piece:

In August 1969, Sundaram suggested the following eight measures to the government for framing pragmatic policies towards economic growth and inclusive development:

“(1) First and foremost is payment by result in industrial, agricultural, private, public, Government and other fields. This alone can achieve the goal. You may verify that countries which have devalued have stabilised their economy by sheer work. By hard work only they have come up and not by just planning or by fooling the people. 

(2) A substantial reduction in taxation is absolutely necessary to rebuild the industrial development. 

(3) We do not want an Everest effort. An earnest effort is necessary in agricultural production which we never had all these 15 years. 

(4) We must create confidence and give opportunity for the people to invest in industry. 

(5) Then, industrial development should not be impeded by controls. We must be free from controls. 

(6) Industry must have adequate rupee finance. At least, if you cannot provide with your money, do not stop them from getting it. 

(7) Provide enough incentive for exports wherever it is found absolutely necessary. 

(8) And last of all, reduce your expenditure drastically, whether it is private or public sector, but never attempt deficit financing either openly or secretly. 

The strength of the currency ultimately depends upon the level and growth of production. Economic policies should be made liberal, planning realistic and administration efficient.”

Mariadas Ruthnaswamy: Liberal Educationalist, Statesman and Writer

My new piece on forgotten history of India liberalism and economic thoughts. The piece is about great liberal scholar Mariadas Ruthnasamy, who was nominated twice to Indian upper house of the parliament in the high days socialism in India in the 60s and 70s.

A slice from the piece:

"Throughout his life, Mariadas Ruthnaswamy championed the pivotal role of the principles of liberty, equality, and economic freedom. He was an untiring reader and authored several books wherein the assimilation of his thinking and mastery over the issues of India covering several centuries is truly mesmerizing. He was profoundly active with reading and writing even at the age of 92, days before his death in June 1977. Alas, many of his great works were consciously marginalised by propagandists even after the fact that he was a scholar from the minority community. His own community itself had treated his works as untouchable because he was a distinguished scholar and thinker of classical liberal principles."

Political Economy of Tamil Nadu

I have a new piece on political economy of Tamil Nadu and its high growth trajectory. A slice from the piece below:

 

"However, despite their divisive polity, a competitive spirit can be seen among the leaders across the political spectrum towards inclusive development and growth of Tamil Nadu. At times, it is astonishing to see a sustained progress of the Tamil Nadu economy compared to other states in India. What drives Tamil Nadu is its core competence and capacities of sectors like healthcare and nutrition, education and entrepreneurship which are the main ingredients of the State’s sustained high growth trajectory. The average growth rate in the two decades following liberalisation was 7 per cent per annum."

GA Natesan (1874-1949): Liberal Scholar and Publisher

I have a new piece on Indian economic thoughts, this piece is about life and works of G A Natesan (1874-1949). He was doyen of publisher of all kinds of works in Tamil languages and English during the British India. Moreover, he was liberal scholar and wrote several books and edited many besides editing the The Indian Review journal for five decades.

Here is a slice from the piece:

"In 1917, Natesan wrote a book on “What India Wants: Autonomy Within the Empire” presenting the case for liberty, freedom, self-government through constitutional reform and urged for providing opportunities to educated Indians in all branches of the British government. Gandhi, PS Sivasamy Aiyer, and VS Srinivasa Sastri wrote forewords to the book which presented with historical views of various Indian and British intellectuals who voiced for advancing the complete freedom from British for various countries including India. In the preface, GA Natesan noted that – “I have also endeavoured to show that the constitutional reforms now urged by the Indian people through their leading political organisations are in the line of continuous growth of the Indian polity and involve no violent departure from the principles or methods hitherto recognised by authority”. He believed that maintaining law and order, by all means, is a must for any government in society. Therefore he strongly opposed Gandhi for provoking the country towards civil disobedience movement." 

Prof Deepak Lal passed away at 80

                                        Prof Deepak Lal: 1940-2020

Extremely sad to hear that Prof Deepak Lal has passed away on 30.04.2020. He was 80. One of the greatest classical liberals of twentieth century, I had privilege of meeting him in Delhi several years ago.

He had planned to visit India couple of months ago but due to hit of coronovirus, he was stuck at London.

When the climate mania was in debate Prof Deepak Lal wrote several articles (in Business Standards) with historical data on the belief o the myths of one-side understanding of climate change. It was very insightful articles but many would disagree and they cannot ignore it.

• the “technocratic public economics approach to public policy” as he put it, “is ahistorical, suffers from amnesia concerning the history of economic thought, is ideological insofar as it sets up egalitarianism as a self‐​evident objective of public policy, is institutionally impoverished and, most seriously, makes assumptions about the character of most governments which—to put it mildly—are not universally valid!”

His web page at UCLA has kept almost all of his works here.

The following are Obituaries on Prof Deepak Lal's life and work:

Classicism and liberalism were two values that defined the man by TCA Srinivasa Raghavan

For a conservative, Deepak Lal saw deep strengths in India's civil society by Suman Bery

Profound philosopher in all travails & joys of life and living by Mani Shankar Aiyer

Cato Institute's obituary

• His book, The Poverty of “Development Economics,” published by the Institute of Economic Affairs in 1983 and subsequently revised and expanded, is still one of the best critiques available of the thinking that dominated, and to some degree still informs, development economics.

A friend of mine had reviewed one Prof Lal's book in Livemint is here.