Jan
30
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The tenure of UPA government is about to end and soon, Indians will face the upcoming festival of democracy, the next, general elections of India.
We all agree that Indian political scenario is a ruining mess with extreme ills of corruption, crime, fraudulent leaders and almost economically illiterate social planners. Yet, the major problem Indian voters’ face today is the rampant involvement of criminals in Indian politics.
The question, which looms is, is it because of bad politicians that Indian politics is suffering with corruption, or is it the other way around. May be politics itself makes a person to opt for corruption.
Some people stresses that Indian youth should take part in politics to remove the corruption.
The problem is, even if you were an honest politician jumping in politics for cleaning out the mess, you can never achieve power unless you promise people something more than what other person can promise, if you promise honesty, the competitor promises honesty and prosperity, so you must promise same or more or else forget the power. People accuse politicians of being power hungry, well the only way you can get power is through elections, and the only way you can do anything is through Power, that means whether you are good or bad, being power hungry is a basic requirement in politics.
Similarly, the competition of election promises results on so many unrealistic levels that they simply cannot be fulfilled. Election parties promise to provide people rice at Rs 2 per kg but its totally unrealistic to be achieved, its similar to how a lover promises Moon and Stars to his girlfriend and although even she realizes it on some level that its not a real promise, it makes her feel really good. No girl is that stupid to actually believe that the guy will bring her moon and stars, yet if a guy tells her that he will bring moon for her, she feel blushed and more attracted towards that guy, thus politics is more based on imaginations and emotions.
Let us take a look over an upcoming politician from Chhattisgarh, Mr. Amit Jogi.
Mr. Amit Jogi is one of the Indian youth with a strong political background; he is the son of Mr Ajit Jogi, the previous CM of Chhattisgarh, he belongs to Congress working committee. He is active in politics, although he has not yet contested in elections. Let us see how future presents him in the political arena.
He is one of the politicians who believe in technology, he is running two major political blogs with an excellent way to co-relate with Indian youth. One may say he is Indian Obama. His father Mr Ajit Jogi have faced some corruption charges1 , and Mr Amit Jogi faced an accusation of conspiring for a murder, Mr Amit Jogi was acquitted by a special court2 , although CBI was not satisfied by the court decision, he has faced imprisonment and detention.
Accepting the concept of innocent until proven guilty, we can say he is not a criminal.
Some people say he is Libertarian and he believes in philosophy of Liberty. Let us accept that rumor too. Now we can access Mr Amit Jogi as a politician with a love for liberty.
Mr Amit Jogi believes that politics is a game of vote bank, and while distributing the election tickets, one should consider the caste, and religion background of the politician to ensure a win, as he comments in his blog
(4) In a seat where there are only about 500 Jain voters, we give a ticket to a Jaini knowing that the BJP candidate is also from this community.3
Obviously, he clarifies that it is not his personal view, but a political view about why Congress lost election in the recent assembly elections of Chhattisgarh. That is, even if he is a libertarian, even if he does not believe in racism, caste and religion based politics and discrimination, to gather power, he and the Congress party need to look at that “logic” of discrimination and division of vote bank. On libertarian point of view, it is irrational and almost a political crime. One should not think of caste, creed, race, religion and other personal attribute while deciding for an authoritative office, what he should think of is the compatibility, ability and accessibility of the person willing to hold the office of power.
There are rumours that Mr Amit Jogi is a Hayekian economist that he does not believe in excessive control of government over economics, more promptly, he is Miniarchist.
His own written blog defies this rumour or allegation (for Congress, Libertarianism is a crime; socialism is the sword of congress.)
During the No-Confidence motion against congress last year, Mr. Amit Jogi claimed the achievement’s of UPA government as such-
The NREGA ensures that the sons & daughters of farmers no longer have to go begging for jobs in faraway city slums; now, hundreds of millions living in the villages can claim employment as a birth right. Not only do they live with self-respect, thanks to the NREGA, but in doing so, they are creating billions of rupees worth of rural infrastructure. Also, under the UPA, Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for foodgrains have more than tripled; farmers’ loans have been waived across the board. Never before in the history of India have the farmers got higher prices for their crops than now.4
The comment not only shows that Mr Amit Jogi is an egalitarian, a deep socialist, and a supporter of total governmental control over economy. He forgot that despite all governmental support and planning, Indian farmers are committing suicide. He even supports the fake ideas of right to education and right to employment. I know, for most of the Indians, this would become a reason to support Mr Amit Jogi, but for a libertarian, this much is enough to oppose him, he simply can not be Hayekian; he cannot be Libertarian, nor a supporter of Miniarchy. 
I have seen people comparing Mr Amit Jogi with Ron Paul.
Ron Paul is a consistent Libertarian who never digressed from his position of laissez-faire free-market, Austrian economy and Miniarchy. (Here is Ron Paul watch the video) there can be no comparison.
Mr. Amit Jogi is strong supporter of Indian version of secularism (pseudo secularism) which suggests that State must support all religion. For a libertarian, state, science and religion must remain free of each other. People accuses BJP for the BABRI Mosque demolition and consequential riots in UP, The truth is, if it were not the bad vote bank politics and pseudo-secularism of Congress, to involve religion in state politics, it might never had happened.
Obviously, none of Mr Amit Jogi’s stand on ethics and politics is libertarian; rather he is a staunch state control supporter over Individual life. He is a Keynesian with no sense of Hayekian ethics of politics and economics. He is a state supporter and not a Miniarchist. He is anti-liberty and not a Libertarian.
It can be true, that he might have a good idea about the concept of libertarianism and individual liberty and Austrian economics too, but to grab power, he has to show-case a double personality.
I can not support him because he is a masquerade. He can be either a libertarian, or a power hungry state supporter. Mr Ron Paul is an ideal Libertarian, an Ideal Miniarchist. Once for a while, I may denounce the doubts of Mr. Amit Jogi as a criminal, he may be innocent and the criminal cases filed against him may be just a conspiracy against him, but he is not a Libertarian.
- Mr Ajit Jogi facing corruption charges, Frontline [↩]
- Amit Jogi Acquitted, CBI not satisfied ZEE news [↩]
- on BJP win in the assmbly elections of Chhattisgarh Amit Jogi’s Blog [↩]
- on Manmohan Singh’s Government, Mr Amit Jogi Blogs [↩]
No Responses to “Politicians in different shades”
Leave a Reply
renegade_division Says:
January 30th, 2009 at 8:13 pmFirst of all Amit Jogi has been exonerated from the conspiracy to commit murder charges in 2007, so what you wrote is “factually incorrect”. Indian justice system has given its verdict that he is innocent. Its proven. Another example of some quality research here. So please correct the facts, because this blog risks libel charges.
renegade_division Says:
January 30th, 2009 at 8:46 pmThis is what Amit Jogi wrote me in my scrapbook when I made a post for him calling him perhaps the only Libertarian politician.
When you compare Ron Paul to Amit Jogi, don’t forget that Ron Paul is an American Politician, and Amit Jogi is an Indian politician.
Ron Paul is a hard core constitutionalist, and Amit Jogi is just a congress leader who will not survive for long if he were to stick to Ron Paul brand of Libertarianism, and its a fact.
There is no way you could be a Libertarian and still hope to do something to change without promising everything what people want. You want to have a cheap privatized quality education for the people, you will have to first win an election on the grounds of promising people complete education for all.
Pick out any random 50 people from your locality, and say “I am running for election, and I oppose right to education as a basic human right, will you vote for me?”, and tell me how many people would even remotely say yes to you. Then spend 20 mins max on each one of them trying to make your case, and then tell me how many of them changed their opinion.
The truth is Ron Paul the puritan is a fringe politician on American political landscape. Libertarians may all fool themselves with all sorts of things, but I come from the middle of American Political mess, and I worked as a grass root worker. guess what, there is no way in hell Ron Paul is ever becoming the President. Not last elections, not in 1989 elections, and not in any future elections.
Why? Because democracy is a system where a bunch of people vote on whom to loot, and how much to loot. The people who don’t have anything will always vote for looting the people who have things. You can be the principled guy who says “we will never vote to loot anyone, no matter what”, but guess what, they will choose some other guy to be the looter for them.
Last year there was a resolution in congress (american congress) to condemn what was happening in Burma, the voting was done, and all 400+ congressmen but 1 voted for the resolution. The one vote was Ron Paul. For how many years has he been voting no? for more than 20-25 years, how many times have things changed? NONE! No politician ever aligned himself with Ron Paul because he came to a realization that its an anti-constitutionalist vote.
Ron Paul would have become a mainstream candidate in Republican Party if only he did not oppose War in Iraq. The famous Republican author Ann Coulter wrote “We would all love Ron Paul, only if he would change his stance on Iraq War”.
Is America getting out of Iraq war any time soon? It doesn’t look like that. So what was the point. I get hammered here for any Anarchist platform for being impractical. So for the sake of practicality, what if the only way to achieve a Libertarian leadership is through populist campaign?
Yes Amit Jogi supports all these populist policies, but then he also understand the benefits of a small govt. What are the chances of his honest belief being:
1) The populist policy
2) The Libertarian principle he talked about to someone he thought understood the meaning of Libertarianism
If he becomes the CM of Chattisgarh, and he does demonstrates that Capitalism brings prosperity, wouldn’t it be worth all the compromises he did?
We can be puritan talkers, and try our best to convince people of Liberty and Freedom, but nothing can beat an actual demonstration that Liberty and Freedom DO bring prosperity. If there is any politician who can be made to understand Capitalism, my bet is on Amit Jogi, now I don’t know what your grudge against him is, but you don’t dream of walking upto L K Advani and concinving him to reduce taxes do you?
Galeo Rhinus Says:
January 30th, 2009 at 11:49 pmI was amongst the 19000 odd people who wrote-in Ron Paul during the presidential elections…
…not to discourage your ideas here… but you might get entangled in the various strings “isms” you seem to have a preference towards… be it libertarianism, miniarchism amongst others…
…the point is that an individual is not a system… the libertarians – showed strong promise in the 70s – but could not sustain their initial spurt… Ron Paul has shown promise – but the Republocratic juggernaut is too overwhelming… and Bob Barr was able to hijack the libertarian ticket…
America or any western nation – is a lost cause when it comes to the establishment of liberty…
…India is the world’s last and only hope…
renegade_division Says:
January 31st, 2009 at 12:15 amYeah dude but our politics is so messed up because even if you say “lets reduce the taxes”, the elite will revolt against you for being anti-poor, and anti-development.
I get hammered all the time for being anarchist which according to the author of this article is highly impractical. Ok, the practical way is going through supporting a candidate with almost no chances of winning any major election(Ron Paul), or through a candidate who might just do it, but he will be so mud slung by the time he reaches there that you can’t even tell if he is Libertarian or not.
Unpretentious Diva Says:
January 31st, 2009 at 3:05 amReducing taxes?
It started up with P.V NarsimhaRao and Manmohan Singh, and it well went with Vajpayee government too to further the cause.
That is not the point. If Dr. Raman Singh proposes Rs3/- kilo rice, Amit/Ajit Jogi and congress comp. proposes Rs2/- rice.
Scrapping you a positive comment in your orkut scrap book and making you feel he is like you is not so difficult for gods sake.
Not a single point in his whole blog suggest he even support liberalism forget libertarianism.
About grudge, when he can exclaim Indian Pseudo-secularism as better than what other truly secularist nations are standing up for strongly, then it shows how dangerous he is for the people, obviously as dangerous as Congress. He may be one with good intentional heart, if he is congress, and he supports Congress ill-will, he is fraud.
You mention Amit Jogi as libertarian because he scrapped you something you like.
There was Kuldeep Bisnoi who strongly opposed Sonia gandhi, Rahul gandhi and whole congress committee when the government proposed anti-liberty anti-poor anti-individual right bill of SEZ, no matters he was expelled from congress, no matters his expect as a politician died, he stood with grace to support the cause of liberty and property right, to oppose the socialistic corporatization of resources.
There is no way one can believe Amit Jogi for any of libertarian cause. About capitalism, everybody knows the type of capitalism you are demanding is well provided by Narendra Modi, no state in India as regulated capitalist as Gujrat, but that doesn’t mean a Libertarian will start supporting Narendra Modi, and hence there is no point of raising Amit Jogi’s case.
Dsylexic Says:
February 4th, 2009 at 2:15 pmArundhati Roy is more libertarian than Jogi. At least she hates the state and all cronyism. She may be a bleeding heart, but she is decidedly an enemy of the state
Amit Jogi Says:
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:05 amAn extract from the Draft-preamble of the FA Von Hayek Society I had set-up on the social-networking website most inhabited by my fellow-Indians, Orkut:
“For those “Libertarians” influenced by the ideas of the Austrian thinker Friedrich August Von Hayek, and how they can be applied to shape the common and separate destinies of the world, particularly nations of the so-called Third World; and a belief in:
‘FREEMARKET’ (Ending of all existing trade-related, ideological and political ‘hegemonies’ in both national and international regimes);
MINIMUM GOVERNMENT (Role of Government confined chiefly to the preservation of Peace necessary for the functioning of Freemarket); WELFARE AS COLLECTIVE RATHER THAN STATE RESPONSIBILITY (Increasing role of non-state actors in the creation and management of welfare-agencies);
ANTI-TOTALITARIANISM (The Protection and furtherance of the Individual’s Right to Expression);
RECOGNITION OF MORAL STANDARDS IN INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE LIFE (To check the descent into Immorality on the false pretext of ‘liberalism’);
DESIREABILITY OF THE RULE OF LAW (Establishing Safeguards against Arbitrariness, particularly state-arbitrariness)”
To me, therefore, these are the 6 Non-negotiable Pillars on which a libertarian society can be founded in India.
For the record, there are only about 80 members in that society after almost two-and-a-half years!