***Alert*** Political rant ahead

A friend shared this article by Kanchan Gupta on FB. I was totally going to applaud Mr. Gupta... if only he had said Soviet style a few more times, used the word 'Orwellian' in case we mistook Big Brother to be a vapid TV show and thrown in a nazi or brownshirt reference or two into the mix.

Obviously, I have a few issues with his punditry. Kanchan writes

Everybody knows that the route to a corruption-free India lies through radical reforms that will ensure minimum government, maximum governance

Isn't it like saying "Everybody knows that the secret to long life is healthy living". Maybe I have been missing insightful articles that he may have written in other places, but what exactly is his trillion dollar idea that will ensure minimum government and maximum governance. All of us wish nothing more than to have the biggest bang for buck. Pray do tell, Mr. Gupta. What does this radical reform that everyone knows about and doesn't fatten government look like? I am asking because if there is a bill or policy that would do it but is not being adopted because of lack of political will, political rookie that I am, I'd like to know what it is. Is there any country that has done these magical reforms that you talk about?

Kanchan helpfully hints

But that’s a tedious process which will also mark the end of entitlements

which begs the question: what entitlements? We have no working concept of social security. There is no unemployment insurance. There is hardly anything that you will call medicare. The only entitlements we have are PDS which gives subsidized rice, wheat and such and without which starvation would reach Somalia levels (FAO puts our undernourished at 21% which is about the same as it was 20 years ago) and government hospitals and primary health care system which is the closest thing to affordable access to medical facilities that more than a third of the country is ever going to see (according to World Bank, the number of people below poverty line is 455 million). Public education has worked miracles, bringing our literacy levels from humiliating to about average.

I am all ears... explain how private enterprise is going to make India a better place. I'd like to ask Kanchan what govt programs does he want to shrink. What programs does he want to axe? What entitlements are holding us back. I hope Kanchan is not suggesting that the best way to get rid of corruption in government, is to get rid of government. I mean, if we didn't have a police force at all, then we wouldn't have to bribe the constable in the street corner. If there was no Dept of motor vehicles, then we wouldn't have to bribe to get a licence. Some reports suggest that only 42% of PDS reaches target population. If we perhaps abolished PDS (and not replace it with something similar), then we'll control corruption?

That is not to say the Lokpal bill is the silver bullet that will change everything. That is not even to say that corruption is the only thing that stands between India and greatness. Yes, populism can be bad. It can be misguided. Look at the Teaparty. But does Kanchan not think that more transparency and a watchdog body has the potential to deter government officials from taking bribes? Isn't it worth trying?

Or put another way, is there a non-governmental player that could possibly act as an effective overseer of government?

As for the bilge about Checkpoint Charlie, the socialist official scowled as he checked his passport and didn't smile or say good morning because he wasn't paid for it. I wonder if on the way back to American sector of West Germany, did the freedom-loving capitalist official give him a coca-cola and a blowjob? Are we still selling copy by scaring the world of the red menace? I thought we hated them terrorists these days.