The economic projections for India are going from bad to worse with each passing week. Migrants are ‘locked’ up in camps, employees ‘locked’ up in their homes, and goods are getting ‘locked up’ in – well, they are not even being manufactured. Of course, the government will print money and promise succour to many – like many governments are doing globally. Printing money without production will have serious consequences down the line which can plague Indians for many years to come. At a time when India needs to accelerate growth to put its people on a path to prosperity, the lost decade will become a lost generation.
So, what are we to do? We have a government almost entirely focused on the aspects and neglecting the economic aspectsSome handouts have been offered to selected sections of people; and more will come. There is never any free lunch – if something has to be given to someone, it has to be taken (by force) from someone else.
We are also back to the era of Soviet-style central planning where a few ‘quarantined’ bureaucrats decide on who should get what – they are already playing God defining what is an ‘essential service’. We are creating new processes (e-curfew passes) and trying to do efficiently things which we should not be doing at all.
That is what those in power have done for times immemorial. Every crisis becomes an opportunity to grow the Leviathan that is the government. And with that, the future prospects for both freedom and its twin, prosperity, will recede even further. In 1755, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
What’s the solution? We need to “Unlock India.” The politicians and the elite aren’t going to do it – most of them are in the segment most at risk because of the virus (over 65 years of age, and with pre-existing conditions). We need the people to demand that we be allowed to work. We have to take care, but life has to go on. Else, the India that will emerge on the other side of the virus is one which will be a nation we will not recognise.
So, what do we need to do? How can we unlock India?
Tomorrow: Unlock India (Part 3)
