yazadjal.com

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh got it right in his first televised address to the nation when he said that it would be his top priority to get the government machinery to work properly, and that reforming this machinery would be his topmost priority. This first lecture by the PM went down well with Indians from all sections of society, all of whom believe that, while they work and pay taxes, sarkari babus do not work at all. If Manmohan could get the babu brigade on their toes it would be an impressive feat indeed. All productive Indians agreed with the PM that India’s mammoth bureaucracy was not just unproductive, but "misproductive" as well. The word "misproductive" refers to activities by thieves, robbers and the like who make wealth for themselves, but at a cost to others. Seen in this light, all "productive" Indians would agree that our vast babudom is almost entirely "misproductive".

However, a year or so down his term, Doctor Manmohan altered his views radically. He now believed firmly that the biggest problem of India was not the fact that our babus were a lazy, ignorant and corrupt lot, but rather, that our peasants were not working hard enough – that our peasantry was "unemployed". He then proceeded to pass law (or "legislation") to "guarantee employment" to one member of each rural household. If only we could banish poverty by legislative fiat!

Now, we all know that no one is willing to work for free, so Doctor Manmohan decided that the public purse be dipped into heavily in order to pay the wages for "employing the unemployed". And who would get to spend the money to accomplish this noble purpose? You got it! The very same "misproductive" babus, who do not work at all (and Doctor Manmohan was also once of this view) would now get lots and lots of money to spend in order to see that peasants work!

The new logic of Manmohan Singh seems to be: take lots of tax money from the productive who work, give it to the babu brigade that does no work, and ask the babu brigade to ensure that peasants work. Will such a stupid idea make India a better country for the poor? I ask my reader to see who are the real "workers" in this country and who are only "pretending to work".

Economics is not about maximising work. Rather, it is about economising on work, in order to improve productivity and wages. A vastly improved transportational sector will greatly raise the productivity of each Indian, and thereby, their output and income. Time saved on transportation can be used more productively in order to produce more and thereby earn more. In India, a huge amount of time is wasted by poor transportation, and time is not only money, it is life itself. We do not represent labour when we condone such a poor transport system; rather, we waste labour.

The sincere-looking Sardar "economist" has either lost his marbles totally, or else he is playing a cruel joke on the poor people of India, who, you can be sure, are a very hard-working lot: if they did not toil, they would starve. There is no need to spend tax money in "guaranteeing employment"; there is need for modern transportation and associated capital goods which will ensure that workers achieve higher levels of output with the same work – or even less work.

There is the added fact that, since the "division of labour is limited by the size of the market", crowded cities and towns offer better employment prospects than vacant countrysides: you cannot be a taxi driver, dhobi, receptionist, plumber, electrician or even chowkidaar in a sleepy village. Speeding up processes of urbanisation by investing in transportation – which would lead to a blossoming of satellite towns and suburbs – would create more job opportunities for those who flee the poverty of villages and migrate to cities and towns. Unfortunately, this process of migration (which is as old as civilisation itself) is not encouraged. Instead, parasitical and predatory government functionaries bleed the informal urban economy of its surpluses. And then they bleed us all in order to fund "employment" in the villages. This leads to the "re-enserfment" of our peasantry: they are indirectly "forced" to work at low wages on the farms of rich landlords. They are not allowed to savour the fruits of India’s nascent capitalism, which is seen most in the cities and towns.

We citizens must get together to oppose the "Employment Guarantee Act". It is a complete waste of precious resources, taken from the productive and handed out to the misproductive . "Bureaucracy is an institution that spends money by procedure", and our bureaucracy will find procedures by which to spend this money. But it will all be a terrible waste. Worse still, the public kitty will have no money left to invest in roads, something India badly needs.

Manmohan started off with the right ideas, but now he seems to have lost his way, and is planning to foolishly spend public money as Congress governments have done for decade after decade in the history of independent India. The Congress bought "vote banks" in rural India, year after year, through its "rozgaar yojanas". Manmohan wants to continue with the same old game, but with a new, evil twist: coating it up in "legislation". It seems an unelected "economist" governs us who knows neither the purpose of the public purse nor the purpose of law. It is time to deliver his leadership a "very poor" Report Card.