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The German chancellor came into town to announce the happy message: Germany will allow high amounts of Indians to work in Germany.
Having Indians emigrate to foreign nations offers one benefit: They hopefully acquire useful skills, gain job experience or pick up positive trades from other cultures. Westerners tend to build bicycle-friendly cities, eat healthy, and invest in the quality of their products and services. Indians aren’t always welcomed by the locals, but who’s to say these Indians will ever come back?! There are entire Indian-American, -British, -Canadian, -Australian and now –German identities not emotionally invested in, even snobbish towards the motherland. Those famous arranged marriages, which in previous decades lured Indians back to select a life partner, are fading as Indians do no longer mind multi-cultural marriages.
Why do businesses and wealth move abroad? Where is the innovation? Why do doctors leave India in a time of telemedicine? Why do Indian families continue to depend on remittances from overseas? Why do children of MLS work for newspapers overseas? Why don’t global retirees move to India for a lower cost-of-living? The sad answer: India sucks! Ergo, more visas to Germany will effectively drain talent from India.
Little has changed since the 80s. A large slice of the population still works in agriculture, grows up stunted due to malnutrition, escapes into extreme religiosity, has resigned into being dirt poor or dreams about moving abroad. If those elaborate government schemes had worked, India would be the darling for foreign investment and immigration. The various promises (“Minimum Government / maximum Governance”, “India a developed nation at 2047”, “Make in India”, etc.) have been exposed. Shiny new infrastructure, UPI or the Space activities of ISRO don’t cover up the horrendous youth-unemployment; besides, SpaceX has beaten ISRO already in price and technology. Consider the cast of Government-economists with their BBC accent as charlatans. India is on the path to grow old before it grows rich!
Critics of the NDA are plenty, although few with brains. Dhruv Rathee understands little, complains a lot and promises everything, all to collect clicks and views. Like Dr. Raghuram Rajan he believes a better leader is called for, as if great leaders ever caused the success of nations. Sorry, but there is no Indian Lee Kuan Yew!
Non-expert and snake-oil-salesman Bhanu Dhamija foolishly proposes to copy the US-constitution, a truly disastrous idea: The US system is actually less democratic, capitalist, libertarian, efficient, fiscally responsible or prudent in decision-making than Parliamentarian Systems, they just survive on stimulus. The US-System would only bring personality-cult, noisy never-ending election campaigns, corporatism, division, identity-politics, deficit-spending and terrible governance!
Rockefeller chairman, excellent book-author and fund manager Ruchir Sharma correctly criticizes the Government for not liberalizing the economy fast enough. Countries prosper, if they protect capitalism, democracy and liberty, if the Government functions mainly as an umpire to empower inhabitants to pursue their self-interest without unjustified interference. In such countries even the poorest fair better than normal people under socialism. The CCP didn’t liberalize China enough, today even revokes freedoms. India fairs no better, because UPA and NDA too failed to implement key reforms.
- Reforming the farm-sector
- Privatizing the education-sector to stimulate competition to raise education standards and to stop the mindless quest for worthless degrees.
- Deregulating the health-care-sector
- Removing all professional and business licensing to foster competition
- Simplifying the regulatory environment, especially the tax-code
- Decentralizing power from the center to the States
Even worse, the NDA weaponizes agencies to harass critics, governs recklessly and damages the credibility of the judiciary, all harmful to the economy. The competition to the NDA doesn’t shine either; the Gandhi family is a dynasty existing for the sole purpose of staying relevant. Sharma however overlooks one question: What forces politicians to reduce Government, if under the current system inflating Government is profitable to politicians personally? What government agency would downsize willingly? Which politician promoting limited Government would survive reelection?
Amateurs talk elections, professionals talk incentives! India needs a Constitution to establish the right incentives. Available Constitutions from other countries won’t do, one must invent a new Constitution without deficits common in other systems, forcing any politician into implementing the right policies.
- Term limits to eliminate forever politicians
- Local and limited government
- Abandon political immunity to fight corruption
- Eliminate parties, since the more powerful parties, the more corrupt the Government
- Sortition instead of elections for Parliament to eradicate elite capture, dynasties, vested interests, expensive elections, showmen in politics and low-information-voters
The new Constitution would be perceived as a rock-solid guarantor of liberty regardless of the contemporary Government. Investment would then rush into India to stay forever despite the deficiencies ailing India today. The politician implementing the new Constitution would surely become a legend. Besides, the world yearns for new global Superpower.
A new Constitution is urgently required now, otherwise, Indians continue to aspire to be Presidents of other nations.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.