"I admire Rajaji because he had a vision for India"

This is an interesting interview of Maharani Gayatri Devi who was Swatantra Party Member of Parliament. 

MGD: I never regretted being in politics, I never regretted being in the Swatantra Party, I never regretted being a chela of Rajaji’s. He believed that India should be really free.

SG: If you look at the two personalities, he and Nehru, both towering personalities, where did they differ?

MGD: Both were great friends. When Pandit Nehru had to send somebody to America to talk to Kennedy, he chose Rajaji. I admire Rajaji because he had a vision for India.

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."

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.”

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." 

The Forgotten Swatantra Party Leader in Tamil Nadu: G.K.Sundaram

Recently I read two articles on the Swatantra Party leader in Tamil Nadu GK Sundaram who was close associate of C.Rajagopalachari or Rajaji. These articles were published by Rajesh Govindarajulu in Simplycity Coimbatore.

The true history of Swatantra Party is yet to be written. Also the history of key leader of Tamil Nadu is also yet to be chronicled systematically. 

GK Sundaram's contribution to Swatantra Party in Tamil Nadu and national political economy is important but has been forgotten by all stakeholders.

Rajesh's two interesting articles are here and here.

C Rajagopalachari wondered whether nationalisation was possible under the Constitution!

It has been fifty years since the bank nationalization took place in July 1969, the following articles are discuses about the major reasons and impacts on the economy and financial systems in the country:

50 Years Of Bank Nationalisation: The Banks That Were

The 1969 bank nationalization did India more harm than good

45 years after its dissolution, here's what opposition parties must learn from Swatantra Party founded by Rajaji

Why Swatantra?

The following are other important articles and books links for the readers to muse how and why the Swatantra demise took place in liberal Indian context:


 Why Swatantra? by C. Rajagopalachari 

The Rise And Fall Of The Swatantra Party

The Swatantra Party: Commemorating the 50th Year.

Swatantra Party @ 60

The greatest Indian liberal C Rajagopalachari alies Rajaji founded the Swatantra Party, 60 years ago to fight with Nehru's socialist ideas and project.

The following some of the interesting reading, which is worth to read and ponder for the current political economy of India:

60 Years ago, a Right liberal Swatantra Party had challenged Nehru's socialist Raj by JAITHIRTH RAO 

FNF South Asia has brought out a new book on "How Liberal Is India? New Book Addresses State of Freedom in the Biggest Democracy on Earth"

The full book is available in PDF here.

I have read the Chapter 5 on Why India does not have a Liberal Party? by Kumar Anand.

The following are my comments to the above chapter:

Mr Kumar says in the above chapter "The market does exist for a liberal party. Farmers are waiting.It is up to the liberals to take

advantage of this. (Page 75)"

Since, the property right has been removed out of fundamental rights under Indian Constitute, nobody would like to talk about it because it is a right like any other right under the constitution. So we need to restore the property right back to Fundamental Rights. In India, among liberals, who is convinced to fight for it now? So this is also ruled out that it is not going to happen in our lifetime. Also, the general feeling is that why do we want to get back to fundamental rights? SO there is not demand for it now. First, most fails to understand the urgency of it and secondly the mobilizations to fight for it is not happening.

Moreover, the political market in India is closed within the ambit of "Socialist" values in the Indian Constitution allegedly amended by the Indira Gandhi during the Emergency period. Unless, we liberals remove the word socialist under Indian constitution, the dream for liberal party is not possible in our lifetime.

 

In 1976, "The 42nd Amendment amended Preamble and changed the description of India from "sovereign democratic republic" to a "sovereign, socialist secular democratic republic", and also changed the words "unity of the nation" to "unity and integrity of the nation"."

So, talking about socialism and welfare state is a vital tool for all political parties in India to get engaged with public for vote and other matters.

If you talk about free market in political platform, it is a sin and always favours for crony capitalists,that is how the public memory is now, for long time. And the Election Commission of India will ban the political parties which is not adhering to the socialist values.

Do read this article by eminent lawyer

Swatantra Party and Thiruvalluvar's birthday

Thanks to Seetha for her wonderful article on the case for "The Swatantra Party’s relevance today comes through in Rajaji’s inaugural address to the party, where he warned of the dangers of the state becoming a Leviathan, “menacingly poised against the citizen, interfering with his life at all points...hypnotising the people with slogans that are mistaken for thought and wisdom, a scheme of government in which it is taken for granted that the citizen is ignorant of what is his own interest”. 

Thanks to the great imprinting voice by Shri.Tarun Vijay, who spoke in the upper of the Indian Parliament about the need for learning of southern and other regions languages by northern Indians. The following are from his speech in the parliament on 31st July, 2014:

"The glorious history of all Indian languages is unique and supremely great. We must work to develop feelings of appreciation and respect for each other.

In this regard it is necessary that people from North India be encouraged to learn any one Southern language through a free choice option.

For example the incomparable golden heritage that we have in the form of Tamil should make every Indian proud.

Tolkappiam, ,app 5000 years old. And on a broad spectrum Silappadigaram, Chintamani, Manimekalai, Valayapathi and Gundalakesi are great classics of Tamil literature.

The onus of the greatest classic in Tamizh literature undoubtedly goes to Kambar's Ramayana, the epic poem

One of the greatest works in Tamizh, which is widely preached even to this day, is Tiruvalluvar's Tirukkural .

Its imprints are found in various parts of the globe. How many of us know about the global influence and public services of great emperors likeChera, Chola, and Pandya kings ? Only Ashoka and Vikramaditya are not India, unless we have an all encompassing respect for Cholas, Krishnadev Rayas and Pandyas also. Similarly we have great history of Bangla, Malayalam, Telugu and other languages.

I demand observing Thiruvalluvar's birthday as Glorious Indian Languages Day in all parts of the country symbolising respect for all Indian languages and introducing Tamil also in North Indian schools as an optional subject for strengthening national unity. Mr Tarun Vijay ended his special mention with Palamaiyana Tamil Mozhiyar Vananguhiren."

Good reading

Interesting observation by Swapan Dasgupta.

"You could, at a stretch, be permitted the luxury of advocating market economics and criticising India’s socialistic pattern of development. But since the Swatantra Party had gone into voluntary liquidation in 1973, this was an indulgence the socialist Establishment conceded to those whose only expression of organised opposition lay in attending Nani Palkhivala’s annual budget sermons in Bombay and Calcutta."

Why Gujarati Muslims are with Modi

Must read

Swatantra's Real - AAP's Fly by Night Politics

"Independent politicians like Masani, who did not believe in the socialist route taken by Nehru, rallied around Rajagopalachari. In the General Election of 1962, within three years of its formation, the Swatantra Party won 22 Lok Sabha seats. The next election in 1967 was its highpoint. It got 44 Lok Sabha seats and was the largest opposition party. It got 9.6 per cent of all votes polled and won 256 assembly seats in various states. And then, just as abruptly, by the polls of 1971, it slipped to eight Lok Sabha seats with just 3.1 per cent of votes polled. By 1974, the main party had ceased to exist." More here.

"The Swantantra Party had become the more legitimate voice of the free market...A decade ago, Mr. Vajpayee’s free market policies were staunchly opposed by Sangh affiliates such as the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. Mr. Modi managed to banish them all from Gujarat, making it a middle class utopia. The anti-capitalist strand in the Hindu right that repelled the modernising, pro-market middle class is now invisible and inaudible." More here.

How the UPA government made mess of India's economy

Raising the minimum wage is a formula for causing unemployment among the least-skilled members of society. 

How not to stop Modi

The impending demise of the Left....on May 16, do not forget to note history in the making, with the Left seats in the low teens if not at a single-digit level.

Chinese president Mr.Xi says "Constitutional monarchy, imperial restoration, parliamentarism, a multi-party system and a presidential system, we considered them, tried them, but none worked,"

"Indian society internalised the Victorian critique"

Interesting reading

The 80 year old Economic Freedom lover S.V Raju shares many things on the birth and death of Swatantra Party (SP) in India. SP was the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha in 1967 with 44 MPs. It won about 256 assembly seats in various States. The party ruled in states like Gujarat and Rajasthan. The article also talks about other old men who were with SP and now with NCP, etc (Open Magazine page:42-44, April 7,2014).

" if reservations are to be expanded, political parties should begin with quotas in their own leadership."

An unconventional take on the Partition

"There is right now no shortage of ideological grandstanding but little analytical insight on inequality in India" "....inequality came down during the socialist planning era while it began to increase after liberalization"

Rajaji, Jaswant Singh and Jan Sangh/BJP

Apart from one wing of the Swatantra Party that lived and died with the privy purses, 

K.K.Pathak says:

"I am somewhat surprised to note Jaswant’s unique understanding of Rajaji’s views and opinions as exhibited by him in his charming explanations of them in true national interest."

"C.Rajagopalchari wanted to unite the Opposition before the 1971 elections. Prof. N. G. Ranga, the then Chairman of the erstwhile Swatantra Party, was hobnobbing with the RSS, he even addressed its annual rally. He wanted a merger of the Jan Sangh and the Swatantra Party. C. Rajgopalchari was much influenced by Ranga in favour of a merger between the two parties. M.R. Masani was General Secretary of the Swatantra Party and was against Ranga’s move. Rajaji asked me what I thought of the proposal made by Ranga. I quite remember my remark: For God’s sake let’s do nothing to pollute the sanity of the Swatantra Party with the fanaticism of the Jan Sangh. When Masani came to know about my opinion he congratulated me for speaking the truth without mincing words. Today I feel I was right and Ranga was wrong in pleading the cause of merger. Nothing has changed over these four decades after I gave my opinion to C.Rajagopalchari in response when he asked me to unlock my heart." Read the interesting story from here.

Interesting readings

1. New socialism in Uttar Pradesh of India
2. The world of Masanis:  Minoo Masani, as we all know, began his political career with strong socialist leanings, only to abandon it in the wake of communist totalitarianism. He then became among the early champions of the Swatantra Party (India’s only true liberal party ever), opposing tooth and nail Jawaharlal Nehru’s socialist policies. He finally settled with the anti-Indira Gandhi post-Emergency coalition, only to be finally disillusioned with active politics. His personal life was no less troubled, spanning relationships with various women, which did not end with his third marriage (to Shakuntala, the author’s mother). 
3. A shoebox of ashes; 
4. "My father's role as the founder leader of Swatantra Party, India's first serious parliamentary Opposition, is well known; and it is ironical that our present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledges Minoo Masani as his main ideological inspiration, rather than Pandit Nehru," the London-based Zareer writes. 
   
   
   More-dynasty is deeply rooted in theIndian political tradition.....

   ‘Where does one turn if you are like me and don’t like the BJP? Mindnight child-masani

    And more
   
   
   The Indira wave-Excerpted with permission from Penguin Books India from And All is Said: Memoir of a Home Divided by Zareer Masani
   
   
   
   
5. Dangerous lies by Tavleen Singh: Ms Roy was among a handful of privileged Indians who inhabited a tiny oasis of prosperity in an ocean of desperate poverty. She taught aerobics at the Taj Palace in Delhi and made forgettable films with silly names. As one of the people in her aerobics class, I had opportunity to converse with Ms Roy often and remember her as being astoundingly apolitical. She appears to have developed her whole political philosophy after becoming a celebrated novelist (ex-novelist?) and has a very limited understanding of economic and political issues.

Blinking links

Interesting reading:


From What G-20 Achieved at Cannes by T.C.A. Srinivasaraghavan

• Or, if you like, Keynes, by being instrumental in providing the intellectual basis for removing a metallic anchor for paper currency, got it horribly wrong.
• That is, as long as the amount of currency that a country could issue was tied to its gold reserves by some multiple, there was an automatic limit on how much could be issued.
• The moment this tethering was eliminated by the US in 1971, and it began to finance its war in Vietnam by printing even more notes than it had done in the 1960s, the balloon floated off and, like all balloons, became subject to random gusts of wind blown by speculators.
• That produced volatility in the commodity markets, which was a private problem. But the freedom to print notes without restraint soon became a public problem.

From Time to Rock the Vote by Prem Shankar Jha 

• She did this because her purpose was not, as her party claimed, to reduce the influence of big business on policy-making. The second Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 had already done this. It was to cripple a rising threat from the right by depriving it of funds. In 1967, the pro-market Swatantra Party, formed by C Rajagopalachari in 1961, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) had fought the elections jointly and become a serious threat to the Congress in three states. These were Madhya Pradesh, where the BJS won 78 out of the 296 seats, Gujarat, where the Swatantra Party won 66 out of 168 seats, and Rajasthan, where, by winning 72 seats, they succeeded in reducing the Congress to a minority.
• The Swatantra, being the most dependent on funds from the corporate sector, simply threw in the towel: most of its members merged with the Jana Sangh. The two socialist parties, the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) and the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP), weakened rapidly, merged, then joined the Janata Party in 1977 and finally, disappeared altogether. Their place was taken by a host of caste and ethnicity-based political parties that we are familiar with today.

From Nationalised family, privatised state by S. Gurumurthy

• Milton Friedman, regarded as the most influential economist of the second half of the 20{+t}{+h} Century and a Nobel Laureate, denounced social security as creating entitlement for all based on merely age, not an economic or poverty index. It is therefore not an anti-poverty measure. And what started off as support to families slowly expanded to supplant the families themselves.
• The result: by such welfare schemes, the US government gradually took over the responsibilities and burdens of US families, and rendered them duty-free and functionless. By taking over normal functions of almost half the US households, the state has virtually replaced the household — that is, nationalised the families. While the next part of this article will be on the causes and consequences of this fundamental shift in the state-society relation, here is a brief on how this shift seems set to dynamite the US economy itself.

From Economics of Bahuka and Greenspan by S. Gurumurthy

• Milton Friedman declared that ‘as children stopped contributing voluntarily to the support of their parents and began contributing through a system of government fiat, a serious erosion of family values became inevitable' and saw ‘social security system as a detrimental influence on social patterns'. The NBER work also pointed out how ‘family functions such as production of food, clothing and fuel and some other staple items were taken over by business firms, and responsibilities such as education, childcare, and social insurance have been assumed by the state.' What the NBER meant here is that business firms and the state had, together, robbed the families of their functions, leaving them functionless, therefore, dysfunctional.
• Conceding that ‘the market system is the most efficient, and most conducive to individual freedom yet devised', NBER pointed out that the market itself ‘doesn't provide for the organisation of the society' but its ‘success during the last 200 years is attributable in good part to the existence of strong non-market institutions such as the family; also adding that the ‘decline of the family and the growth of the government will jeopardise the market system and associated social, political and cultural freedoms.'

CR or RV was decent?

The rise of regional parties coinciding with the formation of the Swatantra Party under Rajaji's formidable leadership had given democracy a new vigour but the Congress a jolt.

Three interesting readings

First, what is the need for blogging? It means simply a lot to each one of us. It is new media for those who wanted to see their new world. Fellow libertarian Amit Verma of India Uncut has a nice piece on “The Big Deal About Blogging”. It is worth to read not as a blogger but a searcher of new world.

Secondly, a marvelous speech delivered at the Constituent Assembly in 1949 by Dr. B R. Ambedkar.

Third, Barun’s lucid update and way forward for A Time to have liberal political party in India.

Swatantra Party and Jaswant Singh

Mr Jaswant Singh said in a interview with IE.

COOMI Kapoor: You are one of two senior leaders of the BJP who is not from a Sangh background. How did you get into the party?

The first party I joined was Janata Party. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was then the leader of the Jan Sangh. He asked me to join the Jan Sangh but I had difficulties doing that. Then, Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur asked me to join the Swatantra Party. I knew Minoo Masani and Rajaji were in the party. I had to tell Rajmata Gayatri Devi that I couldn’t join the Swatantra Party. She was quite irate and asked me why not. I told her there were too many princesses in it! Post 1975, I joined the Janata Party and when the Janata disintegrated, I went to the BJP. That was the long and short of it.

Manoj C G: What will be the topic of your next book?

It’s a book on Rajagopalachari. I think Rajaji is a rather neglected figure of Indian politics. He is an extremely wise man, quite a remarkable figure, he had great foresight and his political life is really a commentary on those times.

Emerging Indian Liberals!!!

Swatantra Party’s Statement of Policy 1981 ends with following lines from Gandhi,

• “I look upon an increase in the power of the state with greatest fear, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality which is at the root of all progress.”

Also read Liberal Initiatives in India after Independence

Indian Liberals

Amit has narrated very nicely about the Indian Liberals and Colour Pictures

PS: I am luckily happen to be one of the participants of this great colloquium!

.