India’s Republic Day January 26th

Today is the 71st anniversary of the Republic Day of India. On Jan 26th, 1950, the constitution of India came into force.

Here are a few posts from previous years. Last year’s post was “Whoever fights monsters …”

Quote:

Around 1951 you could count the number of central government public sector units (PSUs) on the fingers of one hand: there were five. Twenty-five years later by 1976, that number had ballooned to 155. By 1984, there were 220. The central government added 70 PSUs in the following 30 years — for grand total of 290 by 2014. That’s a rate of increase was a little over two per year.

With Modi as the prime minister — and the de facto autocrat of India — the rate of increase of public sector units shot up to over 12 per year. In the four years 2014 to 2018, about 50 additional PSUs were added. Modi promised one thing — “government has no business to be in business” — and delivered precisely the opposite.

From 2013, “Happy Banana Republic Day“:

A democracy is where the government does what the majority of its people want it to do. The people have essentially unlimited power and it does degenerate into what de Toqueville called “the tyranny of the majority.” In a republic, the people — and by extension the government — is restrained from arbitrariness by the institution called the “constitution.” To be sure, the constitution itself is a product of human intentions and therefore can be flawed. So if you have a good constitution, a republican form of government frees the individual from despotic rulers and despotic mobs.

From  2014, “Republic Day Thoughts“:

The great unspeakable and unspoken evil in the world is the military establishment. These militaries would not and could not exist without the support of governments. No corporation or NGO has the power to fund what national governments routinely do for maintaining their respective war machines.

These war machines represent the end product of the worst kind of mass delusion.

There was jubilation among Indians when India became a “nuclear armed” nation. Indians were celebrating their ability to kill humans wholesale efficiently. Pakistanis did the same when it was their turn. Apparently the alternative did not occur to them. The destructive power of popular delusions is most clearly evidenced by the jingoistic celebrations of weapons of mass destruction by the masses who are its primary targets.

Cheers.

Author: Atanu Dey

Economist. View all posts by Atanu Dey