India’s UBI Moment (Part 3)

Here is what I said in the Dhan Vapasi launch video in August 2018 – and every word holds true even now 20 months later, with even greater force and urgency now given the economic catastrophe that lies ahead.

Even as rulers change, if the rules remain the same, outcomes will not change. For 71 years, 20 governments and 3 generations of Indian, politicians have stood before us giving solutions for poverty, unemployment and corruption. But little changed. These hamesha problems are still there with us. What India needed was a Nayi Disha, a new direction. It was from this thinking that was born the idea of Dhan Vapasi.

Let’s get back to our questions. Where is our dhan? What is the public wealth of India? This is wealth that is in the public lands, the mineral deposits and the public sector corporations and their assets. We are all shareholders in this wealth. This wealth is not in foreign banks, it is in India – around us. It is not black money, it’s our money. And how much is this wealth? ₹ 1500 lakh crore. That is 15 followed by 14 zeros. This comes to ₹ 50 lakh for every family in India.

India is rich, yet Indians have been kept poor. The median Indian family earns just over ₹ 1 lakh a year – less than ₹ 10,000 per month for a family of five. They save very little, if it all. And that’s what we have to change. That’s why we need our wealth back.

This wealth is under the control of the politicians and bureaucrats. They have stolen our wealth – just like the British rulers did before them. Just look at the luxury in which they live. They have palatial homes, travel in comfort and have massive security – all paid for by our taxes.

The chowkidars have become zameendars.

It is time to stop this theft. It is time to demand our wealth back.

Getting this wealth back means we can choose how to spend it for our family.

What we spend becomes income for the sellers. When we spend on food, it is income for the farmers. When we spend on other goods and services, it helps boost employment and creates jobs. When discretion in political and bureaucratic decision-making in who gets the benefits of various schemes is eliminated, we can end corruption.

Dhan Vapasi is that practical solution which will eliminate the triple evils of poverty, unemployment and corruption. Dhan Vapasi is the universal prosperity revolution that will fulfil the vision the creators of our Constitution had for all Indians – to secure to all citizens freedom, equality and prosperity. Dhan Vapasi is the real freedom to live life on our own terms – without the government as our master, with fellow Indians as partners in progress. Dhan Vapasi is about fairness and justice. Dhan Vapasi is the right of every Indian.

So, how can we get our wealth back? How do we make Dhan Vapasi happen? The politicians and bureaucrats are not going to give our wealth back. Not only have they not told us about this wealth, they continue stealing from us. Dhan Vapasi will need another freedom movement – to free our wealth from the control of the politicians and bureaucrats.

I failed in 2018 to get traction for the Dhan Vapasi idea. It does not mean the idea was wrong. I perhaps erred in how I presented the idea to the people. Or maybe the timing was wrong. Or maybe I mixed up the economic ideas with the desire for political change.

Now that India faces its greatest economic crisis since Independence, it is time for us to revive and revisit the idea. Dhan Vapasi is the right way to do a broader version of universal basic income (UBI) and create hope, jobs, incomes and prosperity for every Indian family.

UBI done this way does not require any added burden on taxpayers (everyone in India). In this sense, the Dhan Vapasi variant of UBI is unique to all other UBI ideas floated around the world.

Tomorrow: India’s UBI Moment (Part 4)