On the road to Liberty

Prospect of a property rights movement Much has been written about the tragedy of Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal. Yet not much light has been shed on the real significance of the protests by farmers on land acquisition. Brand Buddhadeb has suffered a serious blow much beyond West Bengal. But, more importantly, an undercurrent of awareness is spreading through the grassroots of society on an almost unheralded issue — the protection of property rights. This article was published under the title " Ground Reality " , in the Hindustan Times, on 24 March 2007. Political and social activists have been hurling arguments to score points against rivals. If one side stresses on the need for industrialisation, the other calls for inclusive growth. The self-proclaimed champions of the poor are hobnobbing with big businesses, while the Opposition spectrum, from the fringe Left to the far Right, want to be seen to be siding with the rural poor. And business leaders, who have been enjo...

Fundamental right is not a luxury for the rich, but a necessity for the poor. The rich has the resources to protect their interest by any number of ways, the poor has nothing but the law to fall on. A version of this article of mine had appeared in the Bengali langugage newspaper, the Ananda Bazar Patrika in Calcutta, on 21 March 2007. A lot is being said about the tragedy of Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal, Parliament has been adjourned, yet not much light has been shed on the real significance of these protests by farmers on the issue of land acquisition. Brand Buddhadeb may have suffered a fatal blow, but despite the ideological melee, an undercurrent of awareness is spreading through the grassroots of society on an almost unheralded issue – protection of property rights. Political and social activists have been hurling arguments accusations, trying to score points against their rivals. If one wants to stress the need for industrialisation, the other calls for inclusive growth....

Dr R A Mashelkar, one of India's leading science administrators resigned from a government technical committee, last week, in wake of personal and politically motivated attacks from certain quarters. In this article, " Something patently wrong ", published in the Hindustan Times, on 20 March 2007, I look at the misguided debate over ever-greening of patents, when there are much more serious problems faced by patients in India. Last Sunday, Indians woke up to mourn the unexpected loss of its team to Bangladesh in India’s first World Cup match. The news that ought to wake up the nation is the situation that led to the resignation of RA Mashelkar from the technical committee formed to look into India’s patent law. Mashelkar resigned because of personal attacks and political machinations. Among his critics were political activists who put their populist agenda ahead of the country’s interest, and social activists who make a career in perpetuating ill-health. Mashelkar is one...

At an online seminar on globalisation organised by the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, in Manila, in March 2007, I looked at the forces affecting globalisation, and held that critics of globalisation have a political agenda to keep the people disempowered by restricting their choices, and preserving the privileges for the elite. Globalisation: Power to the people A lot of the times it seems to me that that debate over globalisation portrays the phenomenon as something new. The communication revolution has drastically changed the speed of information flow, and perhaps many of us have in a sense been disoriented with the pace. So much so that we lost a sense of human history! Globalisation is a phenomenon as old human civilisation. It started when the first man learned to trade, barter, his or her goods. Today, there is hardly a product that has not been impacted by some kind of voluntary exchange of one kind or other. Rice and wheat, which are the staples of most humans on the planet toda...