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I had the extreme privilege of studying under Professor Upendra Baxi for my Masters, former Vice chancellor at Delhi University. He is one of the few socially orientated legal minds who may have pioneered petitioning the Supreme Court, as a way of fighting for justice for the marginalized under class given the appalling lack of governance in India.
Post-emergency, and since the early 1980's the Supreme Court has come a long way in terms of asserting itself as a fully functioning constitutional body within the Separation of Powers mechanism, as a beacon of hope and light in the very dark recesses of "Socialist" neo-liberal Shining India with its 55 billionaires and the 840 million existing on 20 rupees a day, and one meal a day.
Of course that is not to say that all SC pearls of wisdom are actioned on immediately after their pronouncements by the alert and responsive state.......since 1996 at least the SC has been repeatedly pressing for police reform nationwide with little effect and growing cynicism........India has inherited a colonial police force which has not been significantly reformed, and so it is often referred to as one of the worst in the world, enjoying low pay of 3500 rupees per month for the average officer and scandals after scandals.
Governments often bury SC recommendations in commissions lasting for years, which when finished are then ignored gathering dust because the public's attention has moved on to other things.
India is a post-colonial state with a stay behind Anglocized elite, who spend their leisure time in London and NY where their children are educated, and their serious money in Swiss vaults to the tune of $1500 billion. Yes Congress got rid of the 500 Maharajahs who had allied themselves to the British and the Zamindars, but unfortunately the rest of the Anglocized elite still exists in India Physically whilst spiritually anchored to London saab and NY.
India will be celebrating and hosting the Commonwealth games this year.
The Prime Minister of India is Manmohan Singh educated in the UK, and whose first language is English. The real power is Sonia Meino from Italy, with no education, hidden out of sight in control of all important appointments and slowly grooming her fickle playboy son to replace Man Mohan Singh.
The President of the country is a diminutive old dear who does not look or sound like a President of the largest democracy.........and she has just awarded herself a 100% pay rise upon entering office (first major public duty). Then we have AK-47 Anthony a Harijan street sweeper in charge of defense.......then there is a lovable geriatric gnome in charge of the finances......Mamta Banerjee who as railways minister stays away from her post to play politics in her home state. In most self respecting nations such leadership would never be tolerated.
We thus must not expect too much from such a rotten state, and must take a certain amount of comfort from the knowledge that things are not so bad in comparison to failed state neighboring Pakistan.
In that sense the Indian SC along with the military are probably the best institutions in India, and institutions matter as Professor Fukayama has so correctly argued since institutions maketh a country; the difference between having a failed state or a first world state.
So I want to celebrate with the Supreme Court and India generally for them coming out and stating what is so obviously true. We are not Amartya Sen, but we can make deductive judgments based on rationality. I absolutely support this statement by the Supreme Court. India must find her own development model which best suits are own needs and not over rely on imported foreign economic models which subsequently court disaster as in the case of Argentina and Russia in the 1990's. There is a strong correlation between wealth distribution and national stability. There is a strong correlation between vast income disparity, exploitation and colonialism.
But I also want to side track the debate.
Does gross poverty automatically create insurgency in any given society? The judges have concluded it does in India's case in relation to the Naxals at least, but the reality is of course more nuanced.
There are many examples where gross poverty, exploitation and subsequent genocide of various shades did not automatically lead to mass insurgency:
When the Spaniards with the Portuguese colonized Central and South America from 1492, and 50-70 million indigenous people died in the next 400 years, there are no clear reports of great insurgencies by the local people.
When the British East India Company starved to death 10 million in Bengal in 1769, because priority was given to growing OPIUM, jute and Indigo for export to China and Europe, there are no clear historical reports of organized resistance either by the ruling local elite or anybody else. The same in Bengal in 1943--44, when the Raj engineered another artificial famine in this area killing a few million more.
When the British starved to death 4 million Irish through stringent Corn Laws in the 1840's which were applied unreasonably, halving Ireland's population there were no popular resistance.
When the Communist authorities in Moscow decided to punish the Ukrainians for showing nationalist tendencies, and instituted the Holmidor killing 10 million, there was no popular resistance. In fact there isn't a lot of indication of resistance by most Soviets whilst the Bolsheviks went around killing 60 million people between 1918----1991. In Putin's Russia the achievements of the Bolsheviks is still celebrated today.
On the other hand many resistance groups have existed due to the good grace of external STATE backers:
The PKK resistance and PJAK in Northern Iraq are backed, trained and armed by Israel.
The LeT is backed by the ISI, which in turn is backed and funded by the USA.
The Taliban is backed by the ISI, which in turn is backed and funded by the USA.
The mythical "al-Qaeda" is backed by the ISI and Saudi Intelligence, which are in turn backed by Western Intelligence and Israel. It is mythical because it is non-existent save for OBL and a dozen of his followers who originally worked for Western intelligence.........but the narrative of the Scarlet Pimpernel like "al-Qaeda" myth is maintained by Pakistan and Gulf client states for the USA and Israel.
The Kashmiri resistance exists due to Pakistan, a client state of the USA which is being funded with billions of $ in arms, and economic aid.
The American resistance existed due entirely to the funding of the French state. Without this support there would be no USA.
Hamas exists because of the funding and support from Israel, to undermine the Socialist PLO and to create the scary Islamic boogie who can't possibly be negotiated with under peace talks.
The Tamil Tigers resistance existed because of the support from India.
I could go on.
Most resistance groups in this modern day and age have some types of foreign backers. It is naive to believe that such resistance groups and their extensive coordinated activities are purely popular local efforts without foreign backers. That justified local grievances are the only reasons for explaining such resistance.
However it is also true that a prosperous successful society such as Norway, where wealth inequality is reasonable, and governance excellent is extremely unlikely to see an insurgency. Norwegian society works both at the micro and macro level.
Domestic resistance is a symptom of a failed state which has failed the people, in some shape or form usually always in Third World societies. India by having 55 billionaires and unequal wealth distribution will invite PREDATORY FOREIGN POWERS TO EXPLOIT such internal weaknesses, grievances as Pakistan is doing now with Kashmir.
How can this problem be managed?
India is prospering, and I say let India prosper for a good many more years.
India does not have a social security system, unlike most advanced or even second world countries (Turkey)............not even a rudimentary one.
So the only other option is government subsidies for basic essentials like food, fuel, education, and health directly. Now most cynical development observers might argue that the "aam admi" will never see such subsidies as they will inevitably be filtered and frittered away by the netas in charge of such schemes. But there are in existence clear government subsidy programs which are fully functioning, and benefiting large numbers of people, and this is where massive government programs need to expand.
As professor Fukuyama has so eloquently argued in another of his books , where there exists great wealth inequality in a society, this will lead to significant social instability and the ONLY AGENT which can rectify this imbalance is the state through an equitable tax regime which is comprehensive, and the redistribution of the services and subsidies through national and state budgets. It is the duty of the government, not through cheap gimmicks but clearly thought out programs which are effectively implemented and funded to reduce the wealth gap.
In that sense "Socialist" India talks the talk of Socialism and Socialist equality, but does not walk the walk..................Socialism and equality are often quite superficially applied in India, as are many other things such as justice, education for the masses, access to health care, food, housing and so forth. We are not talking about reaching for the stars, with Astro-Physics thingy's.
The Congress elite talks of Socialism and "aam admi", but in reality they are ALL post-colonial Anglocized poo droppings who merely pay lip service to such things with blurry meaningless glib platitudes and gimmick politics and policies served to the poverty stricken masses............whilst secretly funneling wealth and Indian assets to off shore accounts, courtesy of a few more multi-billion $ Jew banker coded arms deals and contracts from the state.
I had secretly hoped that the BJP would bring some discipline, sharpness and order into India, so that India could leap forward significantly, away from its clumsy clueless elephant image stumbling through the 21st century. I think my secret desire and hope reflected that at least over the last year.
Congress is Congress, its not going to change after 63 years.....run by geriatrics and side show clowns under the Nehru Dynasty, and behind them the International bankers based in London and NY.
BUT, sadly in its present shape and form the BJP highlighted and celebrated by communalist's and street thugs deserves nothing more than running a village Panchayat outside Pune, with all the goons sitting under the village Bunyan tree, sipping chai and discussing where the cow dung should be deposited to be used for manure fertilizer.
There is a power struggle within the BJP between the Cosmopolitan Delhites and the Gandhi killers of the RSS based in Pune.............one hopes for the sake of Indian Democracy where an effective credible opposition is very important that the Delhites of the BJP prevail over the RSS backed figures.
What do I mean by clumsy elephant, when I refer to India. India is rich, it is the 4th largest economy on earth after the USA $15 trillion, China $ 10 trillion, Japan $4.5 trillion....India real economy is close to $3.6 trillion---$3.8 trillion which will overtake Japan in about 3/4 years to become the 3rd largest economy on earth measured by PPP. So India is a big economy.
On the other hand it is a clumsy elephant because the government/governance which is so essential to a nations development is so poor........"kala sala poor", that we can see clear indications of this failure at many levels whether in foreign policy where India enjoys excellent relations with Bhutan and the Maldives but can't influence outcomes in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and of course Pakistan, despite enjoying the massive resources of the 4th/.....3rd richest nation on earth...........it is a pure issue of management. A nation where 840 million Indians ....whats that ........80% of Indians are "Kala sala poor".
Exports of a mere $175 billion despite having the huge stock of enterprising and scientific genius which repeatedly show results in the USA and UK. You know the story....Mr. Patel came to the UK with nothing in his pocket, and now he is a billionaire.....Mr. Verma came to California as a student, he now runs a successful Silicon Valley multi-billion $ business. Because in such societies with their infrastructure and structure of the state make it possible for talented Indians to succeed, whereas as in India if you are criminal, thief and a goonda with the connections you will succeed in business and politics. Most of Congress politicians must be certified criminals of one sort or another.
EXPORTS: Making things and selling them to the international market at competitive rates.......
Wikipedia:
| 1 |  People's Republic of China | $1,202,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 2 |  Germany | $1,121,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 3 |  United States | $1,057,700,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 4 |  Japan | $581,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 5 |  Netherlands | $499,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 6 |  France | $475,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 7 |  Italy | $405,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 8 |  Belgium | $370,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 9 |  South Korea | $364,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 10 |  United Kingdom | $351,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| — |  Hong Kong | $330,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 11 |  Canada | $316,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 12 |  Russia | $304,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 13 |  Singapore | $270,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 14 |  Mexico | $230,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 15 |  Spain | $218,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 16 |  Republic of China (Taiwan) | $204,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 17 |  Saudi Arabia | $189,000,000,000 | 2009 est. |
| 18 |  India | $176,500,000,000 | 2009-10 |
THE NATIONAL BUDGET: the effective collection of taxes from the WHOLE POPULATION, and the implementation of expenditures and government programs which strategically directs the nations DEVELOPMENT, but also acts as a redistributive mechanism which looks after the needs and welfare of the vulnerable sectors of society broadly defined in Developing Nations as Women, children, elderly and the "Poor".....80%---90% of the population.
Wikipedia:
1= $1,000,000
| 1 | United States(Federal Budget only) | 2,300,000.0 | 3,800,000.0 | -1,501,000.0 | 2010 est. |
| 2 | Japan | 1,614,000.0 | 1,997,000.0 | -383,000.0 | 2009 est. |
| 3 | Germany | 1,398,000.0 | 1,540,000.0 | -142,000.0 | 2009 est. |
| 4 | France | 1,229,000.0 | 1,445,000.0 | -216,000.0 | 2009 est. |
| 5 | China | 972,300.0 | 1,137,000.0 | -164,700.0 | 2009 est. |
| 6 | Italy | 960,100.0 | 1,068,000.0 | -107,900.0 | 2009 est. |
| 7 | United Kingdom | 819,900.0 | 1,132,000.0 | -312,100.0 | 2009 est. |
| 8 |  Brazil | 657,900.0 | 657,900.0 | +0.0 | 2009 est. |
| 9 | Canada | 514,500.0 | 547,200.0 | -32,700.0 | 2009 est. |
| 10 | Spain | 420,400.0 | 536,300.0 | -115,900.0 | 2009 est. |
| 11 | Netherlands | 408,500.0 | 398,800.0 | +9,700.0 | 2008 est. |
| 12 | Russia | 383,500.0 | 273,500.0 | +110,000.0 | 2008 est. |
| 13 |  Australia | 343,600.0 | 340,700.0 | +2,900.0 | 2008 est. |
| 14 | Saudi Arabia | 293,000.0 | 136,000.0 | +157,000.0 | 2008 est. |
| 15 |  Norway | 283,700.0 | 197,000.0 | +86,700.0 | 2008 est. |
| 16 |  Sweden | 270,500.0 | 258,600.0 | +11,900.0 | 2008 est. |
| 17 | Mexico | 256,700.0 | 256,800.0 | -100.0 | 2008 est. |
| 18 | Belgium | 251,300.0 | 254,200.0 | -2,900.0 | 2008 est. |
| 19 | South Korea | 232,200.0 | 222,900.0 | +9,300.0 | 2008 est. |
| 20 |  Austria | 198,600.0 | 203,000.0 | -4,400.0 | 2008 est. |
| 21 |  Denmark | 192,000.0 | 177,600.0 | +14,400.0 | 2008 est. |
| 22 |  Switzerland | 173,600.0 | 168,200.0 | +5,400.0 | 2008 est. |
| 23 |  Turkey | 164,600.0 | 176,300.0 | -11,700.0 | 2008 est. |
| 24 | India | 153,500 | 205,300 | -51,800 | 2010. |
India must raise its budget from the current $200 billion to $800 billion by 2015.
India must learn to tax the criminals and those who deposit their money in off shore accounts. India must massively expand the tax base. In a nation full of tax law professor geniuses how difficult can it be to cobble together an effective tax regime which is transparent and applied to ALL in the country, fairly.
Yes Indians refined the art of not paying tax especially under the dreaded British Raj/East India company.........but they have now gone, and the Indian state requires significant more funds to establish meaningful development for all Indians.
It is unacceptable given the genius and talent of Indian people that 421 million Indians "enjoy" living standards below that of the poorest continent on earth........it is beyond shame.........I couldn't sleep last night thinking about it shame.
But there are clear solutions. And if there are none bar a few more gimmick programs which benefit a few netas, then we must expect the Congress leadership to be rounded up in the future enmass, herded like cattle into the CWG stadium and shot...........like in some greasy Third World coup.......Metaphorically speaking of course.
But the Congress post-colonial droppings must not expect the Indian aam admi to remain apathetic to such clear injustice.......unlike the East India/Raj era which eventually accounted for the lives of 30 million Indians (1757---1947) there are now 56 million armed Indians.
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Skewed growth to blame for rise of Naxals: SC
Dhananjay Mahapatra of the TOI.
This is the worst that the government could have ever got from the Supreme Court.
Terming the developmental policies as "blinkered", the apex court has said that the promised rights and benefits (as promised by the constitution and Congress Party "aam admi" manifesto's) never reached marginalised citizens (?????? not quite marginalised 80% of the population)fueling extreme discontent and giving birth to naxalism and militancy, which are threatening the sovereignty of the country.
Referring to largescale displacement of tribals from forest land in the name of mining and development, the SC said non-settlement of their rights and non-provision for timely compensation of their lost land has created the worst kind of hatred among them towards development, possibly giving birth to extremism.
"To millions of Indians, development is a dreadful and hateful word that is aimed at denying them even the source of their sustenance," a Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and B S Chauhan said on Monday.
"It is cynically said that on the path of `maldevelopment' almost every step that we take seems to give rise to insurgency and political extremism which along with terrorism are supposed to be the three gravest threats to India's integrity and sovereignty," it said.
The anguish of the apex court brimmed over when it dealt with a case relating to acquisition of tribal land by Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd in Sundergarh district of Orissa, which is a Maoist hotbed, and found that those who lost their land were not paid compensation for 23 years.
This extreme example of governmental apathy shook the conscience of a Bench forcing it to ask a series of questions -- "Why is the state's perception and vision of development at such great odds with the people it purports to develop? And why are their rights so dispensable? Why do India's GDP and human development index (which is based broadly using measures of life expectancy, adult literacy and standard of living) present such vastly different pictures?"
It said: "With the GDP of $1.16 trillion (of 2008) Indian economy is 12th largest in US dollar terms and it is the second fastest growing economy in the world. But according to the Human Development Report 2009 (published by UNDP), the HDI for India is 0.612 which puts it at 134th place among 182 countries."
(2010 officially the Indian economy at $ exchange rates is $1.3 trillion, but if measured by Purchasing Parity Power {PPP} it is around $3.6 ---$3.8 trillion, making it the 4th largest economy on earth)
It said the counter argument was that very often the process of development that most starkly confirms the fears expressed by Dr Ambedkar, who had said though politically one man had one vote of equal value, in social life one continues to deny one man one value.
Justice Alam, writing the judgment for the Bench, said this was because despite the philanthropist approach of entrepreneurs and governmental efforts the human factor in the most mineral rich areas have not been able to solve their displacement from forests, despite they being called the oldest dwellers of the area.
On the yet-to be-settled rights of tribals whose land was acquired and no compensation was paid for 23 years, the Bench took assistance from Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam and counsel Janaranjan Das to frame a scheme.
Under the scheme, the Centre being the owner of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd would determine and pay the compensation to the erstwhile landowners. The SC appointed a former judge of the Orissa HC, Justice A K Pasricha, as chairman of a commission to prepare a report on the land acquired within four months and submit a report to the apex court.
