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With its current status of world’s largest producer of engineers and IT technicians, Indian government is now striving for implementing the technology in its administrative set-up and for doing that, the ruling class of India (The Politicians) have planned a grand program of provision of ‘Identity’ to all citizens of India through yet another identity card, although the new proposed identity card will be a ‘little smart’. The rulers feel that by tuning the system with the help of technological assets, they will win over the heart of young voters, further they suggests that the new database of identity cards will provide an efficient way to curb corruption involved in its various welfare programs, yet another propaganda the politicians are spreading is the use of Unique Identity Card for the prevention of crimes and terrorism. So here, we will discuss the worth of the program UID that grabbed Mr. Nilekani from his INFOSYS success and converted him to be cabinet minister rather than an entrepreneur.

UID card to tame Corruption

Unique Identity Card is yet another attempt of the government to assert that socialism, and welfarism actually works, and if it is not working than it is because of the corrupt nature of individuals rather than the corrupt nature of system, government is thus hell bent to prevent any corruption involved in its various welfare programs like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Rural Health Mission, Bharat Nirman etc.
The government says that it will set up a UID Authority of India that will provide a unique identity for the targeted population of those welfare schemes and hence, the corruption inherited in such schemes may be reduced. That is, government yet again declines the fact that such welfare schemes are basically impotent and impractical while asserting that if government weave yet another security thread against the individual freedom, the corruption may reduce and things may work better. There is a basic problem in such a viewpoint. At present, government issues many of such identity cards that are being used to insure the proper beneficiary of the welfare schemes run by government. Yet, it is very easy to produce “fake credentials” and identity cards such as “Ration card”, voter ID card etc. So, by providing a UID smart card, that will contain a magnetic flash memory chip to secure the true information about the card holder that may not be duplicated without government officers concern, government thinks that corruption will be reduced, that is, its not the government officers, clerks and “babus” who are corrupt, but the public is corrupt, public provide bribes to the government officials to enjoy the benefits of schemes meant for helping the poor, while the poor as they cannot bribe, suffers. That may be true, yet how will the smart UID change the scenario? We already have a smart card for Driving Licenses since many years, which are no less sophisticated and technically sound than a UID, yet it fails to tame any corruption.
To record the biometric information of an individual such as his fingerprints, the shape of his hand bones, pattern of his retina, or voiceprint etc on to the idea can only confirm that the person holding the card is actually the owner of the card or not. That is, the UID is too much “fake-proof” it cannot be easily faked or duplicated. Yet, one can change the identity. The information such UID will hold can be as good as the source of information. Therefore, if the public and individuals are corrupt and if the corruption of Indian public is the soul reason behind the failure of governmental welfare schemes, than UID simply cannot help in removing any corruption and such schemes can never benefit the targeted group of individuals for which they are meant. The government officials entering the data in such “smart card” UID’s can be deceived by wrong information, fake birth certificates, salary or income certificates or they may be simply bribed for to issue fake ID’s that cannot be faked any further.
That is, although government is trying to push the cause of removing corruption with the help of UID, yet the UID’s are simply impotent and incapable to remove or reduce any corruption. UID cannot reduce bribery. Yet government is ready to force Indians to bear the extreme spending of $19 billions for the provision of such identity cards that are simply meant to be a failure in the cause of their issuance. This huge amount of money could have been used to “help the poor” yet the government has decided to invest this money to weave yet another government authority (UIDAI) that will control the identities of individual. Therefore, instead of bribing the local government and municipality officials, now the “corrupt public” of India will bribe the specific central government authority officers working for UIDAI. It will not reduce any corruption overall. Instead of taking the responsibility of the inherited corruption in its own base, government thus is blaming individuals and hence is trying to stage a new pattern of controlling and authorizing. How can we trust the government that after the failure of all its management, this huge spending will make it possible for government to reduce any corruption?

UID card for security reasons

India is constantly suffering the evil of violent terrorism from within its borders in form of Maoists, Marxists and Naxals, and from outside in form of Islamic militants.
Government thus suggest that the new “fake-proof” UID’s will help in strengthening the security system. The UID’s, which will contain the fingerprints, image of retina and a picture of the card holder are meant to be fake proof, yet are they really fake proof? The fingerprints can be faked by using a transparent rubber or plastic polymer on the fingers; retina can be faked out by using the contact lenses. That is, no matter how technically sound the system of UID will be, the same or other forms of technology will help the evil corrupt terrorists to deceive the UID security and hence, UID or any such smart card can never be fake proof. Imagine a terrorist simply uses the contact lens specially built for duplicating the retina of a genuine card holder along with using the plastic polymer on his fingers that is specially built to duplicate the fingerprints of same card holder; the picture can be simply duplicated on the card. The terrorist will use that card for entering a crowded building with his plans of violence. The “fake UID” will help him against any security check. The so-called wrong and overhyped security zone of UID will lax the security officials and that will further help the terrorist. The fancy technology of UID would give us a false logic of security and incur a dangerous overconfidence in the security officers who should be most cautious.
A UID will not prevent terrorists from entering the country, it will not stop the terrorist from purchasing materials for making of bombs, and it will not restrict them for making a weapon of mass destruction. The UID will not stop a terrorist from entering a public building like a Hotel or restaurant or bank and opening up their vests full of bombs. A UID cannot prevent such terrorism. On the other hand, terrorists will get help in targeting their “venue of terrorist activities” they will simply look for the places requiring a UID card check as there will be huge crowd and will commit a mass attacks through other channels.
In addition, the officials of the new proposed authority UIDAI will be the same people who are now in charge. Consider the level of their competency that will not increase because of a further new UID. The government had prior warning and information about the terrorists before 26/11 Hotel Taj attack. Government had prior inklings before the attack in Jaipur too. Government knew that the long coastal border of India is being used to infiltrate miscreants, yet because of its incompetency, it failed to secure Indians. Even after the attack of 26/11, Indian government failed to mend its ways and India suffered yet another brutal terrorist attack in Pune on German bakery, Maoists killed security officers at the police camp in West Bengal.

Misusage of UID

The governmental and political terrorists can also misuse the UID. The miscreants of MNS or Shivsena Hooligans may use the UID to confirm their victims and harass them. It would be very easy for government police to ‘identify’ innocent Muslims to attack and harass them after any incident like that of Godhra case, and to plan an attack like that of “Best Bakery” in much sophisticated way. After the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Sikhs were brutalized throughout the India, because of which, many Sikhs tried to save themselves by cutting down their hairs “Juda to Munda Sardar conversion”. That helped many Sikhs to save their lives, but with UID, it would be impossible for any Sikh in such a case to save himself. In a way, UID will be a breach of the freedom of an innocent citizen and he would be an easy target for the government or politically imposed terrorism.
Conclusion: The UID can not increase the competency of government in either the case of security of citizens or the welfare of poor lot. The incompetent government and government officers may waste any amount of money on any such UID card, but I doubt it would help even a bit, yet the economic cost of the UID program is excessively high, that money could have been used for some real welfare purpose. Secondly, the UID will again threaten the individual liberty and government will further start controlling the innocent citizens while it is simply incompetent to catch and control Naxals, Maoists and Islamic terrorists.
“Just as we must not allow terrorists to threaten our lives, we must not allow government to threaten our liberties.” Ron Paul

After all the ruckus of Parliament, the women’s reservation bill was passed on 9th of March. The brouhahas of the dramatic parliamentary debate over the women’s reservation and the consequential voting over it was no less dramatic than the fake emotional ‘atyachar’ so commonly used and seen in various reality TV channels shows. All seemed to be pre-planned and directed and well-executed, and the result was huge TRP coverage for the ongoing Parliamentary debate over the women’s reservation bill and every news coverage related to it. News channels declared the passing of the bill as a historical milestone in the Indian political arena. Every person was forced to get involved with the issue of reservation for the women and literary was forced to accept that reservation actually is a noble idea that may provide equality and will improve the society by any means. Those who opposed the bill were wilfully shown as villains and those who supported it were shown as the heroes for the women cause, and the main leader was obviously the bigwig of Congress Mrs. Sonia Gandhi.
The process of entitlements, reservations, and special privileges was shown as the process of liberty and hence the freedom of individual was virtually brutalized by means of the whip of reservation. More than 100 blue commandos were called to bundle out the villainous MP’s who were trying to offset and oppose the voting for the support of WRB (women’s reservation bill) in Rajyasabha, and in planned way, the opponents applied the most illogical and irrational way of opposition, their opposition was no less than ‘violent’. Nobody actually opposed the idea of reservation nor they supported the idea of empowerment of women, what all of the MP’s of Indian parliament were doing was an act to influence a particular voting sect or the other, and the winner came out to be the ruling party which facilitate the women’s reservation bill. Now Congress party may dream of getting most of the fairer votes in the upcoming elections, after all, they bribed the women of India by providing them special privileges over their male counterparts.
Is the Women’s Reservation Bill of any Worth?
Women’s reservation bill assures 33% seats of MP’s in the parliament to be reserved for the women, i.e., at least 33% of MP’s would be women from now on. Will that change the scenario of politics, will that make Indian parliament look better or say ‘more beautiful’? The reservation for women may soon be enforced in public sector services of India too and then it may be enforced in the private sector too while enforcing a law on private sector to make it compulsory that every genuine company or enterprise must provide at least 33% of their jobs to females.
Will that improve the society? As a matter of fact, such entitlements, special privileges and reservations divide and weaken the society, but this time, the attack is not on the society alone, it is directly an attack on the families of India. The reservation is not going to increase the employment but with the compulsion of at least 33% of jobs to be provided for women, the government will virtually force 33% of women of India to be the soul bread earners of their families. What will their husband do? Well they may choose to be house-husbands, or may choose to try for entrepreneurship. Will that provide equality of men and women in the society?
More importantly, is the equality a virtue.

“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”¹

Consequences: All this political drama of reservation and special privileges for women will weaken Indian society and Indian women. It will increase further egoistic clashes between the two genders and will decrease the familial harmony. The reservation for anyone itself is a curse to society but reservation for women will start cursing the families. There will be more divorces, more cases of unsatisfied, sad and deranged couples applying for divorces. It is not a good trend although it may increase the voting account of the political parties. When Indians must oppose reservation based on Caste, religion and birth, the politicians of India has forced Indians to think about reservation based on gender too.
The major humanitarian idea of no differentiation based on caste, creed, sex, religion, colour, ethnicity has been abused and the trend of specific privileges and entitlements for the gain of political vote banks has been enhanced. It is the process of weakening of Indian Individuals and the Indian society as whole, but the major victims will prove to be women alone. A woman full of ambition does not need any reservation to prove that she is able. By providing her reservation, it has been virtually proved that she is not able and she lacks ambitions.

Although feminism speaks the language of liberation, self-fulfillment, options, and the removal of barriers, these phrases invariably mean their opposites and disguise an agenda at variance with the ideals of a free society.
Michael Levin

1. Timothy Leary, Timothy Leary Wikipedia [↩]

A free society by definition is the society in which, each individual, i.e. the basic unit of the structure of society remains free to pursue his personal prosperity and happiness, where he is free to achieve his most using his talent and hard-work and saved resources. Obviously, such a society depends on rational pursuit of self-interest and provides full freedom for the individuals from the shackles of social responsibility or altruistic motives.
Often socialists claim that such a free laissez-faire capitalist society will turn out to be a system of dog race where no one will look for the poor, the impoverished an the depraved. Furthermore, socialists claim that for a poverty-free society, compulsory altruism is most necessary, where the producers and creators who can produce wealth, must be forced to pay for the living of the poor and depraved. All governments throughout the world follow such Robin Hood’s philosophy and rob the producers, creators, entrepreneurs and investors for the name-sake of welfare state by means of compulsory taxation, price control, Universal Equality Programs and other similar dictatorial techniques. Yet, the world suffer the problem of poverty as always and despite all the huge socialistic efforts by the governments whole round the world, situations never improves.

So what can help to eradicate the poverty?

As per World Bank’s estimates, 60% of Indian population was living in poverty in 1981, during the socialistic regime of Indian government.
Since 1991, India enjoyed the streams of economic liberalization and stepped towards the making of a free society. As a result, the current estimates of World Bank suggests that 42% of the total Indian population now live under the global poverty line of $1.25 per day (PPP). That is quite a big sweep.
Similarly, in China, since the far changing economic reforms and liberalization were made in the late 1970s, the growth fuelled a noteworthy decline in the poverty rate from 64% at the beginning of reform to 10% in 2004.
Obviously, the data suggests that economic reforms and liberalization is the key to the eradication of poverty. Before 1991, the government controlled almost all industries and production sectors of India but after that, step by step liberalization of industries from public sector to private sector took place and the OECD states the result in following words

Annual growth in GDP per capita has accelerated from just 1¼ per cent in the three decades after Independence to 7½ per cent currently, a rate of growth that will double average income in a decade. [...] In service sectors where government regulation has been eased significantly or is less burdensome – such as communications, insurance, asset management and information technology – output has grown rapidly, with exports of information technology enabled services particularly strong. In those infrastructure sectors which have been opened to competition, such as telecoms and civil aviation, the private sector has proven to be extremely effective and growth has been phenomenal. – OECD¹

Similarly, China confronted economic reforms and liberalization in 1978 and now, as of 2005, 70% of China’s GDP is in the private sector. The relatively small public sector is dominated by about 200 large state enterprises concentrating mostly in utilities, heavy industries, and energy resources.²

Free Market Entrepreneurship is the Key to riddle of Poverty

The examples of China and India clearly show that a free market based on Individual freedom is obviously a solution for the poverty in the society itself.
What impels an entrepreneur, investor, producer or creator in a private sector to remove poverty is not his “altruism”, rather it is his selfishness, his motive to produce and earn more, bigger profits. Yet for making profits, he needs to increase the productivity of the workers. As productivity of workers increases, the poverty reduces.
Social governmental constraints, regionalism, nationalism, license raj, price controls, taxes and subsidies etc only reduces the productivity of individuals and hence causes further poverty.
Examples of Entrepreneur trends eradicating poverty
While the politicians and government of Maharashtra is playing cards of protectionism, regionalism and linguistic discrimination by framing such ridiculous rule like permitting a taxi license only for those who can speak and write Marathi,³ the youth from North East is enjoying various job ventures in private sector freely in Indian metros. For their productive efficiencies, girls and boys from North East are in great demand for jobs in private sector as service providers, sales persons, mall, showrooms or boutique managers etc.⁴
This contrasting difference between the private entrepreneurs and government authorities is because of the fact that private entrepreneurs are motivated by the single aim of satisfying their customers in best possible and productive way for doing which, they need to come above any such linguistic, regional or religious discriminations. On the other hand, government and politicians have nothing to do with customer’s satisfaction or individual rights; what they look for is potential vote bank.
The Astaire Research suggests the hurdles in Indian economic reforms and progress in following words–

A Balance of Payments crisis in 1991 pushed the country to near bankruptcy. In return for an IMF bailout, gold was transferred to London as collateral, the Rupee devalued and economic reforms were forced upon India. That low point was the catalyst required to transform the economy through badly needed reforms to unshackle the economy. Controls started to be dismantled, tariffs, duties and taxes progressively lowered, state monopolies broken, the economy was opened to trade and investment, private sector enterprise and competition were encouraged and globalisation was slowly embraced. The reforms process continues today and is accepted by all political parties, but the speed is often held hostage by coalition politics and vested interests. – India Report, Astaire Research⁵

Another example of entrepreneurs helping the cause of eradicating poverty is the success of entrepreneurs like Vikram Akula⁶ or Irfan Alam.
Irfan Alam an MBA from prestigious IIM-Alhmedabad is the founder and chairman of the SAMMAAN Foundation. His enterprise innovated for the help of the millions of Rickshaw pullers across the country. Most of them are illiterate and poor. Over 90% of them are farm workers who migrate to cities for want of employment at home. They hire rickshaws for which they pay owners Rs 30 to Rs 40 per day and end up with a pittance for themselves.
He managed and persuaded banks to finance rickshaw-pullers. His enterprise SAMMAAN designed rickshaws that can put on hold newspapers, mineral water bottles and other such small items for sale if the passenger needs them. These rickshaws also carry advertisements and the pullers get 50% of the ad revenue, the remainder going to SAMMAAN.
Thus apart from the fare, the rickshaw-puller also earns from the ads and the sales. Gradually they become the owners of the rickshaw after re-paying the bank loan in instalments.
Irfan started off with 100 such rickshaws in 2007. Today, over three lakh rickshaw-pullers from across the country are registered with SAMMAAN. While 10,000 and odd are pedalling the special rickshaws, the process is underway to benefit others.⁷
Conclusion: It is the selfish motive of the entrepreneurs to make profits that entails the solution of poverty. As the governments will start to leave the market and society free of their dictatorial regime, the society itself will reduce the poverty to minimum.

1. “Economic survey of India 2007: Policy Brief”, OECD, pdf [↩]
2. China is a Private-Sector Economy, Economist Fan Gang points to a 70% share of GDP now in private hands, but he acknowledges that much improvement is still needed [↩]
3. Want a taxi permit in Mumbai? Read, write Marathi, Mumbai: The Maharashtra government framed new rules for taxi drivers to get permits in Mumbai. [↩]
4. North East Youth ride high on Reatial Boom, The Economic Times [↩]
5. “The India Report”, Astaire Research. [↩]
6. Vikram Akula, CEO and Founder of SKS Microfinance [↩]
7. Obama invites Bihari Entrepreneur to entrepreneur summit, The Economic Times [↩]

The Article 7 of the Human Rights declaration suggests that

“All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.¹ “

The law is supposed to be enforced uniformly, and without any discrimination against the guilty based on their economic and social background.
Yet recently, the Indian Apex Court decided to go against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
On Monday, the Supreme Court said that the courts should consider the economic status of a murderer before sentencing him to death penalty of life sentence even in cases of crimes falling in the category of “rare of rarest”.
The Bench comprising of Justice P.Sathshivam and H.L Dattu said that poor background of the accused should — along with old age and years spent behind bars while awaiting death sentence — be considered as mitigating factors when courts ponder whether life sentence should be used in an otherwise fit case for death penalty.²
It would be fascinating to know why Supreme Court judges are seeking for the populist issues, is the Supreme legal body of India the Apex Court trying to be the champion of socialism?

Significance of the Supreme Court Statement

Reservation for the Poor in Crime
The Supreme Court believes that socio-economic factors might not dilute guilt, but they may amount to mitigating circumstances. That is, if a girl walking on road is raped and murdered by a rich tycoon, than he is surely guilty and must be punished in the harshest manner, but if the rapist murderer belongs to middle class, than the punishment should not be that harsh, furthermore, if the rapist belongs to lower-middle class, than the punishment must be further “mitigated” and if the rapist is a poor (there is no definite definition of poor), than the punishment can only be for the name-sake. After all, he is poor, he should have reservation to be morally depraved, and he should be having freedom to rape or murder, steal, or rob.
The idea behind this is a morally strong, talented, intelligent person is obviously a criminal to some degrees, on the other hand, a lazy, stupid person, who obviously is poor, is certainly innocent to some degrees. Alternatively, the idea can be, to be rich, hardworking and intelligent is a crime in itself.
Obviously, it is akin to show a green flag for all who consider them poor, to be casual about the moral standards and feel free to commit crimes. It is just like showing the shortcut for the poor to be criminals and make money through mean ways.
Apparently, this trend will increase further crime in cities as now; the poor will get a certain “mitigating” security while committing a crime. The police and law bodies are supposed to deal with “poor criminals” with ease.

Consequences of Such Ridiculous Ruling

As now poor have reservation in committing the crime, they can easily innovate and employ themselves in various crimes. Not only they will feel free to commit robbery, theft, rapes or murders for their benefits, they may be employed by the other “richer” criminals to pursue their benefits. Furthermore, any criminal, if he is rich, can easily deal with some poor and pay him a chunk of money to take the responsibility of the crime. The poor will also feel no harm in taking the responsibility of the crime as that will provide him high money and the Supreme Court has already provided him an assurance that his punishment will be much “mitigated”.
Results will be an obvious increase in crimes, further increase in jail maintenance and police expenses, terrorizing environment for middle class individuals and exploitative situations for the poor individuals. The mafia of government, police, politicians and oligarchic corporatists will enjoy the foolery of Indian public that will appreciate the socialistic thought of Supreme Court and Indian government to give priorities for the poor in committing crime, Nonetheless, the Apex Court ruling have provided an easy money making job for the poor. The poor now doesn’t need to be hardworking, morally strong, intelligent and talented for making his life better, he just need to be morally depraved and ready to commit a crime, or to take the responsibility of any already committed crime.

Trailing the Law further

Indian politicians always remain hungry for any such populism so that they may divide the society in various fragments; cause them to struggle within and than rule over them. Yet this time, the Apex Court of India has taken the route of populism. No politician could have thought such a new sector to be divided in various sects of society. SC has already announced the reservation for the poor eventually the High Court of various states may announce a similar quota for Muslims in crime too and then being a Muslim will also be a mitigating factor for punishment for a crime. Well, terrorism is also a crime, so if a terrorist is poor, SC suggests that he should not be punished severely, if High Court of West Bengal announces similar mitigating quota for Muslims, then if a terrorist is a Muslim, he will also not be punished severely.
Quota for crime based on economical state has been announced, sooner or later politicians will again install some committee’s recommendation, suggesting that Muslims should also get reservation in crime, after all Muslims are predominantly minority, no less than poor. After that, politicians may further divide the criminals among their various castes as SC criminals, ST criminals or OBC criminals, with various “mitigating” degrees that would certainly be prescribed by the Supreme Court bench of judges. Ultimately, government and law authority have started encouraging the crime and producing the criminals.
Conclusion:: Socialism, or the idea altruism, that is, the obligatory immorality of having “pity” on the poor ultimately leads to the destruction of not only the poor but also of the whole social set-up. Whenever the government or central collective law authority takes such altruistic step, irrespective of their good intentions, the results come out to be devastatingly opposite. The recent statement of Supreme Court to discriminate the criminals based on economical class will certainly increase the crime in society and will further cause deterioration. The best way a society can assert uniform justice is by providing free or privatized legal services.³

1. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations [↩]
2. Poverty could mitigate crime, even murder: SC, Times of India [↩]
3. Prospects of Private Judicial System in India, RFL [↩]

The Ministry of Home affairs, Government of India, is on the way to amend the Arms and ammunitions policy. The document issued by MHA says “Proliferation of arms and ammunition in the country disrupt the social order and development.” How true is it? As in many other issues, the conventional wisdom could be wrong. India has very strict gun control laws. In India, people were prevented from bearing arms by the British under Lord Lytton as Viceroy through the Arms act of 1878 after the mutiny of 1857. Though the Arms act, 1858 was repealed in 1959, Arms Act, 1959 was put in place, supplemented by the Arms Rules, 1962. As a result, there was improvement in several development indicators, after Independence, but crime rates in India have gone up several times, mostly in urban areas.

With all these gun control laws, we were not able to prevent the terrorist attacks in 2008, Mumbai. A reporter in the location was caught saying he wished he had a gun instead of a camera. Only people loyal to the British were allowed to possess arms. Many freedom fighters were opposed to this rule. Even Mahatma Gandhi opined in his Autobiography:”Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of its arms as the blackest. “I do believe that when there is only a choice between cowardice and violence. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honor than that she should in a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless victim to her own dishonor.”

Proponents of gun control usually argue that gun rights will lead to high crime rates. Firstly, a criminal is a person who violates the law. Is it logical to assume that such a violator will obey gun control laws? A criminal planning to attempt a murder won’t think “Oh, I am sorry. I don’t have a gun. So, I am not going to do this!” In one way or the other, he will get hold of a gun or some other powerful weapon. Vikram Kona writes: “There are around 40 million illegal small arms in circulation in India. Most of them are either illegally smuggled in or manufactured in the illegal cottage industries. Criminals never apply for licenses, nor do they spend a fortune to buy illegal guns. They get them cheaply and easily on the black market, and use them against law abiding citizens with impunity.” Gun control would only disarm innocent, law abiding citizens. Secondly, there is no empirical evidence to prove that gun rights lead to severe crimes. Quite the contrary, in fact! Nations with the highest crime rates are the ones with the strictest gun control laws. The low crime rate of Switzerland is illuminating. Violent crime skyrocketed after gun measures were prohibited in Australia in the last 90’s. When Washington D.C. enacted a ban on handguns, homicide rate rose 200%, while the U.S. rate rose 12%. Often, it is argued that Gun controls are the reason for the low crime rate in UK. There are two points to be noted here. Crime rates were extremely low in UK, even before the hand gun ban. Crime rate rocketed after the ban. As it is said, “Your chances of being mugged in London are now six times greater than in New York.” A study by the US Department of Justice found that there were 40 percent more muggings in England, and burglary rates were almost 100 percent higher than in the United States.

It follows from the philosophy of self-ownership and the right to own property that people have the right to defend their lives and property- If necessary, by force. If so, people should have the right to bear arms. It goes without saying that people should be held accountable for their actions too. But, it makes no sense to punish a person before the criminal act is performed. It is absurd to prevent some people from being armed simply because there are people who use guns for wrong purposes. Why should ones rights be determined by the actions of others? Should a person be prevented from driving an automobile as others drive recklessly? (People killed by their own guns are an extremely rare minority) Charles Reese perceptively noted: “To believe that guns cause crime is as stupid as believing that hammers and saws cause houses. Cars and doctors kill a lot more people than firearms, but nobody wants to ban them.” There is even an NRA slogan: “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

Not for a single moment am I saying that gun rights will prevent crimes. But, people will have a more chance of protecting themselves if they are free to defend themselves. Murderers, thieves and terrorists would think twice before attacking their victims if there is a chance that they are armed. Women and physically weak people could be made strong only through gun rights. It’s ridiculous to expect policemen to be omnipresent. Defending oneself is a skill which anyone can acquire.

It should also be said that a ban of guns won’t eliminate guns from the society. There will always be people who get hold of guns, just like people have access to drugs despite of strict penalty. Such laws can only be enforced selectively. Almost always, people who are not in good terms with the authorities will be punished. The real intention of the people in power is to increase their power through disarming people. Gun control is the greatest threat to individual liberty.

Indian state is as much a natural conception as it is a political planned fertilization of the diverse linguistically different regions of an area whose only common identity before the unification by the British was the same racial and religious identity. India as a unified state never existed in history, and it never had a common binding factor that unites all its populace regardless of race, cast religion or linguistic identity. The British unification of India not only united the geographical region, but, for the first time in history, it provided them a reason to unite, against the common enemy, the foreign invaders. However, as soon as it was clear that the fight was won, the leaders now had to provide a separate reason for which the state must continue its unified existence, and bar the Muslim League, nobody could propose a clear and distinct definition of what India was going to be like. The Muslim league wanted a state based on religion that could unite the mass after the departure of British, their movement got a great support, and they were able to form their state, an Islamic republic, through the partition of India. Nevertheless, the non-viability of that identity in the sub-continent was proven by the partition of Pakistan, in a linguistic basis, though the inhabitants of both the countries were Muslims predominantly, and had taken part in the earlier partition enthusiastically.
India was born with a nation identity which was conceived in negation to these historical occurrences, India was a sovereign country, which wanted to protect itself from being occupied by foreign force, India was a secular country, unlike Pakistan, and this “unlike Pakistan” part was very important to Indian people, who failing to understand the proper meaning of secularism interpreted it as religious tolerance. India was not going to be divided by the linguistic biases, so, states were created out of linguistically distinct areas. Hence most of Indian identities established at the point of independence were rather reflection to past and present occurrences, rather than being a conception of conceived and new ideas. As time has progressed, the state of world around has changed, but the principal denominator of Indian National Identity has not changed, and deemed extremists demanding independence on mostly ethnic, religious or linguistic grounds have emerged. Thus, the first conceived identity has failed somewhat, as it was precisely against these very ideas.
To add to this has been the indecisiveness over the government form, India, conceived by Gandhi Ji was a state whose power rose from the Panchayeti Raj, that conceived by Jinnah gave states almost full autonomy, and that conceived by Nehru-Gandhi rulers was centrally dominant. As such, states have felt exploited sometimes or the other during history, as most of the states of India have linguistically and culturally distinct people, who do not necessarily identify with the great Indian cause unless their cause has been properly addressed. Furthermore, the government has given some states more power and autonomy than others (e.g. Kashmir) though declaring it to be a special circumstance, the people of other state have not stopped short of creating special circumstances for their own states. The India government has been blackmailed so many times at gun point, that every other ethnic group now has one or two extremist factions.
The failed idea to promote one national identity through one national language during the 60s have been forgotten by the Saffron Brigade who are promoting it in a new pack of triple Indianism (Hindi, Hindu, Hindutwa) with poster boys like Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, and incidents like the demolition of Babri Masjid. It has quite often published in the media that Dr. Kalam starts his days by reading a verse or two from the Geeta, which according to the saffron brigade, is what an ideal secular Indian would do. Dr. Kalam has been exploited till he could yield no more, he has been used to prove that Muslims can be patriotic, that being a Muslim does not necessarily mean having a soft corner for Pakistan. The saffron brigade in last 20 years has created amidst the majority that they have been wronged time and again throughout history, and then by their very own government. Now, the majority resents having to share a state with Muslims, who were given a separate state — Pakistan.
To add to this feeling have been the introduction of various reservations. India, a country where being of higher caste meant you were worshipped as God once is now seeing various groups demanding that they must be bracketed with the Scheduled classes and tribes. And these demands are often turning violent, and in some extreme cases, given rise to terrorist organization. The introduction of reservation, which it was thought that would get rid of discrimination have divided the Indian populace like none other, and it has involved the educated elite too, who previously did not care about castism. Rather than getting rid of caste differences and making people forget it as a shameful part of history, the government has taken it out and put it before everyone and made it something which everyone must be aware of.
The political parties of India show how far India really is from achieving a true national identity. Most parties are conceived in racial, linguistic or religious circumstances, and barring the communists, no party has a clear economic stand point, forget about individualism. Even the communist, who come from a strong economic and philosophical ideology has been found confused and reacting in a knee-jerk manner. Their acceptance by the educated once showed that India once was prepared to move beyond the politics of cast and religion, but now, communists are mostly seen waving their secular flag rather than using their true red flag of equality and social justice. Hence, they have been rejected by the educated people, and now are in dangerous of being wiped out of a state which they have ruled for 27 years, and that too to a lady whose political agenda is solely based on objecting to the communists and nothing more. Such a shame.

I, a libertine, was very much interested in the communist politics in my young adulthood, as that appeared to be the only party which was addressing the real issues and moving away from cast and religion. Many of our friends came to join the party, but soon became disillusioned not because the party was proposing communism, which we did not like, rather because, it was going in the same direction as the others. But all those people from the previous generation, who wanted to vote on economic basis, had no option but to vote for them, and it is sad, for their demise proves that the field for true libertine philosophies is almost non-existent and is violently opposed by the present parties.
Now, the Indian Nation identity is very much limited to that of being born in this country to a mother and father who are Indians. And hence, the rate of emergence of separatist movement is increasing every year, and the government has to bribe to keep the nation integrated. Perhaps, someday, the identity shall be established on economic and philosophical terms, and citizenship by birth be abolished in favour of citizenship by choice. But then, what would limit the boundaries of such a state? A global mega state brought about without the use of arms, perhaps!

Shanbaug , a 61 year old woman¹ , who suffered a brutal rape 36 years ago and has been lying in a vegetative state since last 36 years wants to culminate her pain and misery, her life. Her “Next Friend² ” describes her as

Her bones are brittle. Her skin is like ‘papier mache’ stretched over a skeleton. Her wrists are twisted inwards; her fingers are bent and fisted towards her palms, resulting in growing nails tearing into the flesh very often. Her teeth are decayed and giving her pain. Food is mashed and given to her in semi-solid form. She is in a persistent vegetative state.

She has a right to live, should she be punished for that right? How human is it to force her to suffer all the pain regularly? Does the “right to live” include the “right to die”?

The right to Live

In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly declared in article three:
“Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.”
One must understand that “right to life” just like any other right, is not an inalienable, rather it is a subjected of the liability of the right holder.
It is not only an axiom underpinning the concept of freedom, but rather the necessary means to fulfill man’s ethical requirement to achieve a life in accordance with his nature. That ethical requirement derives first of all from the fact that we are living entities facing, like all living entities, the fundamental alternative of existence or non-existence, life or death. By our nature, our specific capacity to deal with that alternative is reason volitionally applied to action. If one chooses to pursue the alternative of death, questions of first principles are moot. If one chooses life, then life becomes one’s goal and the standard of all values.
The complex and spontaneous nature of our lives requires us to identify those values we must seek in the service of our life and order them into a code of values to guide our choices – i.e. an ethics. The primary precondition is the freedom to exercise autonomy over the application of reason and action in the service of our life. Thus, the right to life and our need for freedom is based on what we are – on the fundamental nature of man.
The moral right to one’s life is not a social/political right. It is that which in principle is right for any individual in the context of his own life. When and if an individual chooses to live among other men and interact with them over the long run, he needs to preserve his ability to live by his moral rights. Nothing can prevent him from doing that except physical force or the threat of force, so, above all, his primary social need is the absence of coercion so he may apply reason and action to production and voluntary trade. Yet, what if a person does not want to be with others, he does not want to live anymore? Is he the soul owner of his life, is he the only decision maker for his own life? Yes, he is free, he is no one’s slave. That is why, human dignity and his self-ownership, his sovereignty is considered even above the right to his life.
A man surely possesses an inherent right to a dignified life and by virtue of this right; he certainly is the sole decision maker of what to do with his life. Society, as a cumulative function of many free individuals is a positive human structure to help the man to attain and enjoy the right to his dignified life, the society cannot dictate the terms of dignity or life to any person and it is his decision to be made, free of any social, political or legal coercion.
Thus, in a case of an individuals like Shanbaug, if she prefers to end her miserable and painful life, it is her decision to be made. She is the sole owner of her life and she inherently owns the right to end her life too.

Current norms of Right to Life

India is considered as a free nation, a land of free individuals.
Freedom is so little understood in this “land of the free” that it is often confused with its opposite. The current example of Shanbaug is evidence to that prevailing confusion. The Apex court of India that negated the pleas of termination of pregnancy of mentally retarded girl resulting from a rape at Nari Niketan in Chandigarh and a similar plea from a Mumbai couple for terminating a diseased fetus³ , raised questions against the plea of Shanbaug to terminate her own life. The objection was obsolete and rhetoric. ‘‘Do you mean right to life includes right to die?’’
In no way a man’s right to dignified life can be alienated from his proper right to die. If the society or legal codes of society rule over the individual moral code of life, than it means that the individual is not free and certainly have no sovereignty, rather the individual is mere a subject of legal socio-political norms of collective society.
The Apex Court of India now has accepted the plea of Shanbaug to be debated at Supreme Court. The question is why should the Apex Court be considered as more powerful than the individual’s own right to self-sovereignty and Freedom?
Most probably, Apex-court may dictate a directive to discuss the provision of certain amendment in IPC to include the provision of Physician Assisted Suicide; they may subject it to a public constitutional debate. The Supreme Court may totally reject the plea to voluntary suicide too. Yet, if Apex Court accepts Shanbaug’s plea, as doctors have told her there is no chance of any improvement in her state, will it be any positive step towards Individual Freedom? Will the Supreme Court of Free India ever realize that Indians are not a subject of rule of Supreme Court or national government rather they are entitled to individual sovereignty and a dignified life?
To keep a will of a person to end his life under the decision of Supreme Court or under the will of physicians to decide whether to let a man die or not is a direct breach of “right to live with Dignity” confirmed by the Article 21 of Indian Constitution. By force-feeding Shanbaug and treating her, as a vegetative entity for the purpose of medical tests and experiments is not only unjust, it is highly inhuman. She is not a mouse or cat dependent on the will of physicians.
In case, if Apex Court agrees to let Shanbaug end her life “if Doctors permits her to perform Euthanasia”, than again it would be a breach of individual freedom of Shanbaug and her right to her life. She is certainly not a slave to those doctors whom Supreme Court may consider as the decision maker of who should live or who should be allowed to die.
Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) is a mendacious issue; it confirms that the physician is principle and not the assistant, that it is the physician who will make the decision whether the person should be allowed to die. An assistant generally means the sub-ordinate that helps one in achieving his decision, but in case of PAS, the physician himself becomes the decision maker, the person superior to the patient. PAS simply empowers Doctors and not the individual to make a free decision for their own life. As a matter of fact, PAS is breach of right to life.

Economical Aspects of Euthanasia

Since last 36 years, government hospital is “force-feeding” Shanbaug, keeping her alive with permanent care, which technology has made an option in an overwhelming number of hospitalized cases. It is not the only case and it requires resources that someone must relinquish in order to make it possible. That is, Government is forcing a person to keep living miserably with no dignity against her will like a slave, while the same government is exceptionally unable to provide any proper medical treatment or help to millions of other Indians who often suffers health hazards and deaths because of lack of medical facilities. How proper it is to waste resources and money on simply forcing and enslaving a person who by her own will want to die, at the expense of misery and poverty of millions of other person who may need the welfare health resources desperately?
No matter how much Indian government spent on people like Shanbaug, they will remain vegetative and unwilling to live, they will keep suffering and feeling like encaged, enslaved, undignified things for governmental medical experiments, no better than rats and dogs. Obviously, we the tax-payers are being robbed for such inhuman acts.
In absence of government control over health care, the decision of life or death of Shanbaug would have been in her own hands. Had government not been paying for her hospital care, perhaps interested individuals would have been willing to contribute to her care. As long as private individuals were voluntarily giving of their funds to keep her alive, it would have been much more difficult for a court to order her feeding tube disconnected. However, because the state is paying for it, ultimately, life and death decisions is to come from a high arbitrary government power. Neither Shanbaug nor her close relatives have any say in that, they may keep pleading like miserable beggars for mercy and humanity to the Supreme Court.

Conclusion:

Right to a dignified life is a fundamental moral right that confirms the right to die itself. If right to life is left not as Individual freedom but as a subject of governmental legal whims of lawyers, magistrates and physicians, than it simply means that Individual is not free even to decide for his life, it would certainly be a breach of his right to life. Moreover, by means of coercive tax-collection and universal health-care, Government again breaches the individual’s fundamental right to dignified life at one hand; on the other hand, it is huge wastage of very limited and scarce medical resources.

1. SC admits sexual assault victim’s plea to end her life, Times of India [↩]
2. Next Friend— a legal term used for a person speaking on behalf of someone who is incapacitated [↩]
3. The Issue of twisted Abortions, Reason for Liberty [↩]