Any talk of Socialism brings both tears and a wry smile to us Hindus. Because Socialist politics and economics are geared towards Social Justice.
And PLOT TWIST; Social Justice is a Christian concept that comes from Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum’ issued on 15 May 1891.
And indeed, why not? The Judeo-Christian God was the oldest and greatest progressive in living memory.
Destroy all things Old;
Idols of Gods are out of fashion and so conservative! Deserved to be smashed!
So are these pagan rituals.
Change and the Progressive voices shall lead you to the heavens and nasty conservatives shall roast in hellfire.
What happens when one follows Christian model of economics?
Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. (Acts 2; 44-45)
Doesn’t it sound like………?
The end results? A beautiful Jerusalem of course!
A land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.(Deuteronomy 8; 8-9)
The Utopia had an excellent Healthcare system
Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. (Exodus 23; 25-26)
Indeed, the first Christian Societies implemented Communism. The whole of Europe in the hands of a false faith descended into the Dark Ages.
Europe had to steal, loot, plunder and then fight among themselves to have the wealth and keep their Christian faith too. All this only to give way to Communism.
O Spengler wrote, “Christianity is the grandmother of Bolshevism”.
Indeed, Bertrand Russell and Alasdair C. MacIntyre had very disturbing things to say about the similarities in which Marxists and Christians operate, spread their gospel and conveniently blame others for their own mistake.
The latest from that Cabal of Halleluiah economics is, of course, Thomas Piketty. Reportedly, the Congress party is seeking the advise of Thomas Piketty in drafting its ambitious, and poorly thought-out, Minimum Basic Income programme.
Indeed. Just like a chain smoker finds his cigarette, a serial killer his clueless victim, Christian Economics, in the form of Thomas Piketty, has landed at the doorstep of the ever-clueless Congress Party.
Like their Prophet Marx had said “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce”
We well know how that tragedy went.
1947 was the year these Indian Elites gained independence. How did they fare on this front?
Subramanian Swamy comes to the rescue. He explains in his book, “Hindus under siege; The way out” why Halleluiah economics was preferred.
The author of this strategy, namely Nehru, wanted the Soviet model adopted for reasons not known to many, and paradoxically it suited the interests of two powerful vested groups within our country: one, the feudal compradors whose progeny during British rule received English education and then entered the bureaucracy through Civil Service examinations. The other group was Left-inspired Indian intellectuals educated in the thirties and forties in Oxford and Cambridge (the “Kim Philby” group). The latter group gave Nehru the necessary intellectual baggage, and used their friendship with Nehru, to secure posts in key points in government, press, academic and diplomatic service after India achieved independence in 1947.
The same Church and Holy Roman Empire dynamics exists today with a Prince for the throne and a Church of intellectuals giving him ammunition.
When compared to Asian economies like South Korea and Japan that had chosen to adopt to market rather than bury their head in sand, Halleluiah economics delivered minimal growth and none of it was inclusive.
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| Target | Actual |
1. | First Plan (1951-56) |
| 2.1 | 3.61 |
2. | Second Plan (1956-61) | Soviet Model Period | 4.5 | 4.27 |
3. | Third Plan (1961-66) |
| 5.6 | 2.84 |
4. | Fourth Plan 91969^74) |
| 5.7 | 3.30 |
5. | Fifth Plan (1974-79) |
| 4.4 | 4.80 |
6. | Sixth Plan (1980-85) | Liberalization Period | 5.2 | 5.66 |
7. | Seventh Plan (1985-90) |
| 5.0 | 6.01 |
8. | Eighth Plan (1992-97) | Economic Reform Period | 5.6 | 6.78 |
9. | Ninth Plan (1997-2002) |
| 8.0 | 6.20 |
Only these sections, the bureaucratic elite and the advisor/neta/jholawala splurged while the Nation famished.
They did not have to create a new State apparatus, the old State which made England rich now made Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta Little Englands. Pensions, money extracted through corruption from other parts of India made it till there where it was recklessly spent on private, sometimes imported goods.
Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore have come up only after liberalization, there too two of them are State Capitals.
This is also the type of Capitalism the Khan Market crowd likes to boast. India’s private sector is still in the shadow of its Gargantuan and inefficient public sector. What it means is that the village entrepreneur will miss out on impressing the Brown Sahib or Desi Mem at Khan Market and might have to close his business altogether. A solemn goodbye to that ticket to prosperity.
Ronald Segal wrote “The Crisis of India” with subdued anger at the callous attitude with which Indian elites failed to look after Indians. Hungry, miserly in shabby clothes became the USP of a land where wealth was once worshipped as a Goddess. Sainath’s essay collection “Everybody loves a good Drought” can be easily mistaken for a comic relief. Except Halleluiah Economics is a lived tragedy.
Swaminathan Aiyar calculated the cost of Halleluiah Economics of the Congress era on the Nation for The Cato Institute.
He finds that had India not given into Christian demands, 14.5 million more children would have survived, 261 million more Indians would have become literate, and 109 million more people would have risen above the poverty line.
But of course, we must understand these unborn babies were not distantly related to the dynasty and probably never had the dimpled cheeks of Indira Gandhi.
That being said, there should be no doubt that Congress 2.0 has found His Holiness, Lord Piketty. The Congress party cannot resist the temptation of Halleluiah economics which Piketty champions.
A party as intellectually bankrupt as a potential rice-bag convert cannot see the way forward. They can only wander aimlessly without a vision and then disillusion the nation before elections. And Congress party is doing precisely that.
