For Highways, Against Railways

Good fare in the Sunday columns: Both Tavleen Singh (here) and Swaminathan Aiyar (here) have expressed serious misgivings with Nandan Nilekani’s ID card project. Yeah, let us kill this stupid idea.

I also enjoyed a travelogue on the Konkan Railway – and decided to write today’s post on railways. Mamata Banerjee’s "socialist" railway budget is fresh news. And the Konkan Railway is the biggest rail project in independent India. Yet, how important are railways in the modern world? To be more precise, since our railways are so outdated, and so badly managed, would we not be better off focusing on highways?

At the outset, let us note that railways came to India in the mid-nineteenth century – that is, fifty years before the automobile was invented. Or seventy years before the Ford model-T and perhaps a century before universal automobile ownership in the West.

Further, let us also note that India in 2009 is witnessing an automobile revolution. This industry may be flagging in the USA, in Europe and Japan, but in India it is growing at a rate higher than the national average. Go to any city or town and you will see cars, cars and more cars. I wrote about India’s automobile revolution in a Mint column some months ago.

I live within shouting distance of a Konkan Railway station. It is like all the other stations of this line, as described in the travelogue: quiet and sleepy. Not many people use these trains. But go to the local bus stand and see the activity. We now have a new bus stand in Canacona, and there are over 20 shops in the complex doing brisk business. There is only one kiosk in the railway station, and I doubt it generates much profit.

This itself indicates that a new coastal expressway is required. The better-off people would use personal transport; the lesser-off people would use modern buses. Modern buses on modern highways can outcompete airways in distances upto 500 kms. They would outcompete our slow railways even over 1000 kms. In my book, therefore, our State railways are not worth much. We need good highways, modern buses and trucks, and more personal transport. This is the transportation solution. Not railways.

The Konkan Railway is actually of no use to the Konkani, who uses the horrible NH 17 for all his commutes. Most of the trains on the line are “through” trains, from Delhi or Mumbai going down to Kerala. It is also an interesting fact that the Konkan Railway earns very little from passenger fares; most of its earnings are from freight, especially that of ferrying loaded trucks from Mumbai to Kerala. Yes, the railways carry loaded trucks! Why? Because the “notional highway” is totally screwed-up. Check out the Konkan Railway website here.

So let us not worry too much about Laloo or Mamata at Rail Bhavan. Rather, let us focus all attention on Kamal D Nutt, now the minister for roads and highways. He must be goaded to perform.

Say Yes To Title Insurance

For quite a few days now, I have been enjoying a history of the Indian Civil Service penned by one of its later members, Philip Mason. Thanks to my donors, I have managed to procure the original two volumes of his The Men Who Ruled India, published in 1953, under the pseudonym Philip Woodruff. In India, the single volume being sold is an unsatisfactory condensation.

What emerges from this reading is that the highest priority of the British government was land records.

It was therefore with a deep sense of regret that I read of what is the legacy of the IAS, socialist successors of the liberal ICS. In an extremely pertinent column on title insurance, Madhumita D Mitra writes:

In the words of one international title insurance major, as a potential title insurance market, India is a car crash. Fragmented land holdings have been left unattended by surveys and settlements almost since the British left this country. Mutations have piled up and land records have not been updated for decades. The present system of recording of rights is only “presumptive” which means that the person paying the property/revenue tax shown in the land/property record is just presumed to be the owner of the property. In case of a dispute, it still requires the courts to establish ownership. Transfer of property deeds may be registered, but such registration refers to the document alone and does not validate the ownership.

The term “car crash” is accurate. Mason speaks of how Congressmen eager to take over The State in the 1940s were like those who want to drive a car without learning how to do so. They caused the car crash.

Do read the full column here. Mitra talks about a proposed government guarantee to property titles – and how private title insurance is a far better idea. Unfortunately, the insurance regulator is playing spoilsport. To quote Mitra again:

For any title insurance scheme to succeed in India, a lot will depend on how progressive and adaptable the government and the insurance regulator are to this new concept. Mr. Philip Oldcorn, CEO of First Title, UK, which is working with the United India Insurance Company on a title insurance product for the commercial market, is appreciative of the concerns of the regulator that it needs to worry about the management of liabilities of the insurers in this niche and brand new area of insurance. Officials at National Insurance Company who failed to get their title insurance product past the IRDA however, feel that the regulator should stick to ensuring that insurers maintain their solvency margin requirements under the law and let the companies mind their own bottomlines.

I wholeheartedly agree. Indeed, private sector title insurance can play the role of an effective watchdog over government title guarantees. The insurance regulator should not block the development of a title insurance market.

Leave Those Kids Alone!

Yesterday, the Union Cabinet okayed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill. It will now be tabled in parliament. Read the news report here. The idea is that kids between 6 and 14 will be forcibly sent to free government schools. Private schools will have to reserve places for the poor.

Yet, as Anthony de Jasay explains in this little book, all “rights” must be based on “obligations.” Where the obligation does not exist, neither does the right. Thus, if a landlord signs a rental contract with a tenant, the latter has the “right” to occupy the property because the landlord has a corresponding obligation to hand over possession peacefully. A worker who signs a labour contract has an obligation to work on the terms specified, while the employer has the right to demand that work as per contract.

Once we understand that all legal rights are meaningful only when backed by matching obligations, we find that the innumerable “human rights” legislated by socialists are all completely meaningless for the precise reason that no one is backing them with obligations. Socialism means the multiplication of meaningless rights. These rights exist on paper only. And so it will be with this new “right to education.”

Further, the words “free” and “compulsory” jar when placed together. If education is delivered to the people free of cost by The State, then no private entity can possibly compete. Further, this free education should be such an attractive prospect that no force has to be used to get kids into schools. This bill wants to use force to provide something free as a right. Like a right to free and compulsory gulab jamuns. This sounds so confused that I wonder what sort of “knowledge” went into drafting this bill. And, it must not be missed, our education minister is a socialist lawyer.

In my book, knowledge is capable of being bought and sold in markets, like any other good or service. There are people with knowledge and people without, just as there are people with potatoes and people without. So just as the people who want potatoes buy them from people with potatoes, so must people who want knowledge buy it from those who have it. My question: What knowledge does out The State possess that it is so desirous of becoming a Universal Teacher?

Think over this question. Think deep.

And know that the country is a mess because of The State.

Why, even the new bridge in Bombay has been cited as an example of “incompetence.”

How can we allow such an ignorant entity to teach?

Recommended reading: My recent article, "De-Mystifying Knowledge," available here.

What Is Happening In Lalgarh?

Our newspapers are not performing their job as far as the Lalgarh Rebellion is concerned: there is total silence today.

From what we know, the central government’s para-military force, the CRPF, has overcome resistance and taken over this part of West Midnapore district, just 200 kms from Calcutta. Yet, the CRPF is no solution. A military takeover is not “civil government.”

And there is worse on the CRPF: They have now been removed from Baramullah in Kashmir. This follows the hideous incident at Shopian where CRPF personnel were suspected of rape and murder. In Baramullah too, public anger against the CRPF was sparked off by their excesses.

If we leave the CRPF and its excesses aside, and look at the local police, here is a report of an “encounter” in Andhra Pradesh, a hub of Naxal activity, in which a top Naxal leader was killed yesterday. And here is another report that claims in its title that Naxals in AP have been "tamed" - though the concluding paras indicate quite the opposite to be true.

Yet, this is also not the “rule of law.” We can usefully contrast the methods of our desi police with the Brits – and this is of a period before there was any policing in India; the Indian Police Act is dated 1861, shortly after the Mutiny. The example that follows is of the 1830s.

In those days, traveling in north India was horribly unsafe because of gangs of Thugs, who would strangle their victims and loot their possessions. Over 20,000 travellers perished every year because of Thugs.

The records speak as follows:

“There were in the years 1831 to 1837 more than three thousand Thugs convicted… More than 400 were hanged, more than a thousand transported for life… Another thousand were awaiting trial in 1837…. But the work was done; that evil was finished.”

Why did the Brits act in this “legal way”? As the same author says, this was “because they stood for the rule of law as against the individual whim that ruled before.” In Mughal India, as Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador to the Court of Jahangir, recorded in his journals:

“There is no law in India; the Emperor by his own word ruleth.”

The underlings of the Grand Mughal in Delhi had their own way of administering justice when highway robberies occurred: A robust young man from a nearby village would be hauled up and summarily executed on the spot where the robbery occurred. There are reports of executions ordered without even hearing the accused. Yet, this is precisely what has just happened in Andhra Pradesh. It is this that happened to Veerappan. It is this that must be happening in Lalgarh today.

My point is this: There is “rule of law” only when those entrusted with enforcing this law are under the law themselves. This is the ideal of “constitutional government.” This is also the ideal of “civil government.”

What is happening in India today is that the forces of the Central State are doing exactly what the Mughal Emperor’s underlings did in their time.

Yes, the press must re-focus all attention on the Lalgarh Rebellion. Singur and Nandigram were great upheavals in Indian politics. Lalgarh must become one too. We must engage in civil politics with the rebels. We must speak with the ordinary tribals. Mere force, that too from Laputa-on-High, is no solution at all.

Liberty For The Edupreneur

The Economic Times has an important editorial on education, one that calls for an immediate end to the license-raj in the sector. In particular, the editors rubbish the Yash Pal Committee Report, calling it “too socialist,” and draw attention to a note of dissent to that report penned by the Cornell economist Kaushik Basu. I particularly liked this:

Glorious socialist tirades against commerce in education cannot obscure the fact that government-provided education, in schools and colleges, is often so pathetic that to call it education is preposterous.

Tragically, the editors fail to think things through to their logical ultimate conclusions, and call for an “independent rating agency” in education, to be set up by – you guessed it – The State!

That apart, an excellent editorial that calls a spade a spade.

Nothing much else to blog about this morning. The new bridge in Bombay – its being named after Rajiv Gandhi, and Sonia flying in to inaugurate it. Now, what can one say about that?

Or the Liberhan Commission submitting its report on the demolition of the Babri Masjid after 17 years and 8 crore rupees.

All this I can stomach.

But let’s get ‘em OUT of education.

Why I Am Optimistic

Ever since the results of the elections were announced, there has been open soul-searching in both the BJP as well as the Left front. The BJP-RSS-Hindutva equation has been repeatedly challenged. The overall conclusion of the pundits has been that the BJP needs to re-invent itself if it is to survive as a serious contender in Indian politics.

Funnily enough, it is the same story for the Left. Of particular note is an interview with the Communist leader AB Bardhan, where he has talked of “party cadres” alienating the public by acts of bossism, interventionism and outright predation: they cannot be “sharks,” he says. Today, the ToI has commented editorially on Bardhan’s interview, concluding decisively that the communists of India have to morph into social democrats if they are to matter.

But what are the communists and who are their “party cadres”? From Bengal the news is that they are all “armed goondas.” This is why the main opposition to the Communist regime in Bengal is calling for an end to the operations in Lalgarh: because what is actually happening, they allege, is that CPI(M) party cadres, armed to the teeth, are taking over territories vacated by the Maoists. And this is what the average Maoist is like. Both sides are armed. Both sides engage in predatory "politics."

Note the total absence of the “civilian administration.”

It is in this context that the Nilekani 1,50,000 crore rupee agenda of “smart” ID cards for all must be viewed. Here is an interview; and here are some extracts from his recent, and first, book. The card is to be a means by which our The State can “deliver services” to the poor. He cites the example of US Social Security; of European bureaucracies. The very idea is socialist and such ID cards are of no use in practical administration. The only thing that really matters is marketable property titles to land and buildings. Hernando de Soto’s ideas are vital here, not Nilekani’s. But then again, that requires a “civilian administration.”

Note that we have a “civil nuclear pact” with the USA – but we have no “civilian administration.”

Of course, smart journalists are waking up to the fact. Here is an Express editorial on the need for sweeping reforms in our public administration.

However, what really matters in all these discussions is that dreaded word “ideology.” Only classical liberalism believes in private property and free exchange. Only classical liberalism abhors the misuse of force. It is this that must be taught in the academies of public administration.

However, I remain optimistic. We are bound to overcome someday soon. The enemy camps are a shambles.

How About A Ganja Pride Parade?

The newspapers are all full of a gay rights parade held in New Delhi. Very good. India’s gay community must be complimented on their courage. The news report says they marched down the streets shouting “Proud to be homos.” I recommend a reading of Plato’s Symposium. There is a lot in it about homosexual love, which was highly regarded in ancient Greece. In India, homosexuals are the target of criminal law – and this tyranny must end. Let us try and become a civilisation wherein every kind of love is celebrated.

Yet, my pet peeve is another law – the Narcotics & Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. Because of this ugly piece of legislation, farmers and smokers of ganja-charas have a very rough time. In my travels, I have often come across farmers of the Noble Herb – and witnessed first-hand how much they suffer. Their fields are always remote and inaccessible, to be far from spying eyes. And they never know when the cops will land up to burn their fields. If they manage to harvest a crop, they must sell it for a pittance to a criminal. The criminal then goes on to claim a black-market price from a smoker. The farmer and the consumer both get screwed. The middlemen, which include the cops, make away with the loot. This must end.

What is required is a “Ganja-Charas Pride Rally” in New Delhi, a march from India Gate to Raisina Hill, with thousands shouting “Boom Shankar.” There should be sadhus, smokers and farmers – from Kerala, Manipur, Manali… and all the places where good ganja comes from. This should be an annual event, to be continued until this legislation is repealed.

Funnily enough, most smokers of the Noble Herb are afraid of going public. While I was with the Economic Times, I conducted a debate on the op-ed page on cannabis legalisation. I invited the director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, the head of the department of psychiatry at AIIMS, and for a third view looked for an eminent smoker. First, I invited a prominent journalist who used to smoke in public – but he declined. I then invited a famous Bollywood star who was known to smoke a joint before every take – but he too copped out. Lastly, I invited Upamanyu Chatterjee, IAS officer and author of the bestseller English, August, whose hero is a ganja smoker – but he too declined.

I finally published the debate with just the two views: of the doc and the cop. The doc, the great Devendra Mohan, concluded by asserting there was no medical reason why the traditional bhang ki thandai should not be sold as an alternative to alcohol: Bhola Cola! The cop said that ganja should be illegal because ganja smokers are “untrustworthy.” Absurd. Cops, of course, are trustworthy! Anyway, the fact remains that we smokers must emulate the homos, and march, chillum in hand, to fight for our freedom.

“Boom Shankar, Dushman ko Thang Kar.”

That said, readers are also directed towards my latest column in Mint, available here. It is on the differences between Western and Eastern philosophy – how they are “worldly” while we are “other-worldly.” I particularly liked the illustration by Jayachandran. It shows a Buddha-like figure seated in lotus position silhouetted against the setting sun, with a great big highway leading up to him. Yes, we desperately need highways.

And Liberty.