Swarajya, May 30, 1964
Between ourselves, honest voter, these private monopolies created by the pernicious system of permits, licences, quotas and controls (to be extended now even to foreign capital which voluntarily comes into the private sector) make the Congress Party's rich friends richer, and the poor poorer. It is a close conspiracy; we have a battle between money and liberty, between dharma and atheism, between freedom and communism clothed in Congress robes.
The Socialists have found an attractive and vague name which helps them to insinuate a bad and objectionable policy, making their victims believe that it is the good objective they are asked to vote for, not the means. The truth is that the goal stated is merely a means to the end which they have in view. The end, which they want is, all authority and power for the party organization to enable the party to be perpetually in power and to see that free people are converted into gelded horses to pull the chariot of the State.
Society to hold all property and authority, the individual to count for nothing— this is socialism. The commune to count for everything, the individual being nothing—this is communism. There is little difference between the one and the other, although the historic feud between them has not ended. In India we see the Congress and the Communist Party, in practice, acting as one party. There is no feud or conflict now between the two. Both socialism and communism promise to the capons that the State will in due time wither away and then the individual will regain his masculinity and freedom. In neither regime, however, does this happen. Where is the State more real or more powerful vis-a-vis the citizen than in Russia? It shows no signs of withering away. Castrated bulls, gelded horses or any other caponized animal including socialist-ruled citizens, lose their masculinity and freedom for ever. There can be no freedom without a guarantee for property.
The fact is that the notion of non-disparity between citizen and citizen is an attractive unreality. Society cannot move on flat parity. Disparity is the dynamic of life, even as difference of levels is essential for generation of water-power. The rule of law and equality of opportunity—these are what we should aim at, not the abolition of all difference and competition in work and business. The right to earn by putting forth one’s effort and capacity, and to hold what one has earned by such striving is ensured in democracy. This is where democracy is in conflict with socialism and communism. Joining up the word ‘democracy’ as an adjective to socialism cannot make up for the Statism involved in the socialism practised by the Congress Government. Confusing the goal with the means, the happiness and welfare of society as a whole being the goal, the socialists use the name of ‘socialism’ for the particular means, viz., Statism which they want the people to accept as the path to reach this goal. This is the Great Fraud that gets the votes of the ignorant and the poor for freedom’s very suicide. “Swatantra can appeal only to the educated” the present President of the Congress, Sri Kamaraj, once declared at a meeting. He relied on the Great Fraud to get the uneducated people on the side of Statism!
Let us even accept the word socialism, under the pressure of general use, but let us apply it correctly. If socialism is the goal and not the means, we know what socialism must be taken to mean, the happiness and welfare of all people, equal opportunities, and the rule of law. But it cannot be reached by the Statist measures adopted by the Congress Party, which the, Congress is driven to adopt willynilly in greater and greater measure—because one fault and one wrong necessarily lead to the next fault and the next wrong, and the chain does not end until totalitarianism is reached. Using this terminology, then, what the Swatantra Party wants is non-Statist socialism. Your socialism, the Swatantra Party says to the Congress Party, is a deception. It is really Statism, not socialism. And if you add the ambition of industrialization to it, it is State-capitalism. True socialism may be described as non-Statist socialism to distinguish it from the unreal—if we must play with ‘socialism’ as ball.
Shall we have Statist socialism or shall we have non-Statist socialism?—this, then, is the question. Democratic socialism is a contradiction in terms. If one likes, one may put it differently—shall we try to attain the common goal through maximum government and minimum freedom, presuming that the people are by themselves inefficient or dishonest, which is Statism? Or shall we adopt a policy of progressive increase in national production through maximum freedom for the enterprise and effort of individuals and groups, and minimum centralized control? The Swatantra Party stands or the latter and the claim on behalf of it is that it is the only effective way to reach the goal. The other policy soon breaks down through natural evasion and corruption, and unavoidable wasteful expenditure. The very machinery erected to suppress evasion, corruption and waste, itself gets corrupted and becomes an ever-growing addition to the waste of national resources. All attempts to overcome or reverse natural laws must inevitably break down. Let us accept the law of human nature and turn competition and self-interest to the national purpose and win the battle against short supply, unemployment and poverty. Let us not allow the Congress Party to use its present power to suppress energy and enterprise through controls and bureaucratic regulations, and to penalize those who succeed through self-effort by crushing taxation.
Let us not give away our freedom hoping that we shall get it back on a future day. Even now we see that once we give it away, it is hard work to struggle for its recovery. It will become harder as the years roll on. The elections are linked to money power and that, again, to political power and to the favour of the party in office. We must, if we wish to be free citizens, get the Congress Party to give up its Statism, or vote the party out of office in spite of every difficulty. Courage solves all difficulties, and once we summon up courage, we shall find the task much easier than imagined.
