Auctioning Ayodhya is a bad idea
Published by Ravikiran Rao November 23rd, 2003 in EconomicsSauvik’s suggestion (also Parth Shah’s) to auction off the Ayodhya site is a really bad one.
That’s because- I thought I’d choke before I say this - in this case, theory and practice do not match.
If the government actually conducts the auction, the bidding match will come down to a fight between a Hindu group led by VHP, Bajrang Dal and other delights and a Muslim group led by the BMAC and other worthies. What would happen then?
The Hindu group would win. Any doubt about that? VHP would be able to marshall almost limitless resources for the task. Tens of thousands of businessmen, industrialists, traders, NRIs etc. would pitch in.
We can just imagine the reaction if such a thing happens. Apart from the riots that would follow, what would be almost worse would be the reaction of the Bidwais and the Arundhati Roys who will gleefully point to this as an actual example of the unholy nexus between the forces of Market Capitalism and Hindu fundamentalism fuelled by NRI money. We would never hear the end of it.
There is a slim chance that the Muslim side would win. This would happen if they get funding from the Middle-East and from International Islamic fundamentalist organisations.
The VHP gang would immediately seize upon this as evidence that Indian Muslims are beholden to foreign interests. (In reality too if Islamic fundamentalists score such a victory we would have practically invited Al Qaida into the country)
Auctioning off Ayodhya would be a recipe for disaster.
I agree with the rest of Sauvik’s argument. The real problem in all this is that we don’t see the government as an impartial and impersonal body bound by a set of neutral rules. If we did, we would tolerate unfavourable outcomes as long as the process was fair. But we see the government as a tool to be manipulated, if possible, by “our side” to serve our interests. This is why although auctioning the Ayodhya site is the fairest thing to do, we judge it not by its fairness, but by whether the outcome is favourable to us or not.
Establishing such a government is the task that we capitalists have ahead of us. It is both Herculean and Sisyphean. But I don’t think that an emotionally charged issue like Ayodhya is a good starting point for the task.
I have no idea how to solve the Ayodhya issue, but this approach is definitely a dead end.
Interesting word you used, sispyhean. Should start reading up on Greek history.
Ravikiran,
I agree with your arguments completly.
I think you have hit upon a broader question here, how can we apply market based solutions while there still exists a general interventionist and otherwise politically oriented framework, many if not most of the people in the country (including me) cannot conceive of a solution to this and other problems, mostly because we accept the current constituitional setup as a finalité, and the social setup as bad but inevitable. But how can we change it?