Swarajya, April 1, 1961
The socialism of the Congress, as distinguished from the socialism of Gandhiji can be more correctly described as State socialism. Statism is a better name for the creed of the Congress. It means inefficiency in production and distribution, through an uninterested army of paid State officials and agents whose perquisites do not depend on, and are not related to, the quality or quantity of production. Monopolies at all points in favour of selected individuals and groups, partisanship and corruption in selecting these individuals and-groups, an endless chain of power and corruption, the policing that these call for, and its concomitant oppression and annoyance of the innocent, these are the results of State socialism. Apathy instead of interest results where creative energy is to play its part as a natural consequence of substituting the State for the individual.
The entire ideology of socialism is based on a huge fallacy, that creative energy can be isolated from personal interest.
Ownership is the natural mechanism for production which combines interest in production, with liability to pay a share of the yield to the State for general purposes. This is elementary but it needs reiteration, as socialism seeks to ignore this fundamental basis of human activity. Seeking to get production increased, or even maintained at present level, not only without incentives but also keeping disincentive swords of Damocles over the head of individual prosperity, is as futile as the effort in the mechanical world to produce energy and perpetual motion without expending power or fuel, ignoring the law of conservation of energy.
Apart from the defects and differences in the administration, the goal of the Congress is general welfare, as is that of the Swatantra or any other party. The instrument for achieving this goal is, according to the Congress, its socialism. The Swatantra Party plans to achieve general welfare through prosperity without loss of individual freedom.
It is common ground for all parties that greater production is a pre-requisite for general welfare. The question is, what is the incentive for greater production? For, the incentive is always the best plan. The need for greater production and the knowledge that is necessary are the only incentives which socialism depends on. The Swatantra Party adds to this the personal interest of the individuals contributing to the production. The Congress plan, viz., socialism, involves loss of individual freedom and substitution of individual initiative by State dictation.
Socialism is not an end in itself. It is an instrument for the achievement of an object, viz., general welfare. Hence we have to examine the efficiency of the instrument, as well as the disadvantageous by-products that issue from the instrument.
The communists as well as the Congress Party want the life of individual citizens to be totally absorbed by the State. This is the moksha which socialists desire to achieve. The Swatantra Party also aims at a revolution but it is a moral revolution, by which all individual property becomes a trust. This moral, not legal, identification of nation and citizen leaves the citizen free, consciously to enjoy that identification. In the socialist philosophy the identification is a legal process by which nothing is left of the citizen after his total absorption and disappearance in the omnipotent State. We do not want an advaitic absorption; to pursue the analogy we want a visishtaadvaitic unity which is aananda.
The socialism of the Congress as distinguished from the socialism of Gandhiji can be more correctly described as State socialism. Statism is a better name for the creed of the Congress. It means inefficiency in production and distribution, through an uninterested army of paid State officials and agents whose perquisites do not depend on, and are not related to, the quality or quantity of production. Monopolies at all points in favour of selected individuals and groups, partisanship and corruption in selecting these individuals and-groups, an endless chain of power and corruption, the policing that these call for and its concomitant oppression and annoyance of the innocent, these are the results of State socialism. Apathy instead of interest results where creative energy is to play its part as a natural consequence of substituting the State for the individual.
The entire ideology of socialism is based on a huge fallacy, that creative energy can be isolated from personal interest. The most obvious demonstration of the fallacy would be to order a secretariat to produce a painting instead of asking a painter to do it. An equally disastrous and actual demonstration would be what is called 'co-operative' cultivation instead of letting each peasant look after and acquire something for' himself from his own farm. Ownership is the natural mechanism for production which combines interest in production with liability to pay a share of the yield to the State for general purposes. This is elementary but it needs reiteration, as socialism seeks to ignore this fundamental basis of human activity. Seeking to get production increased or even maintained at present level, not only without incentives but also keeping disincentive swords of Damocles over the head of individual prosperity, is as futile as the effort in the mechanical world to produce energy and perpetual motion without expending power or fuel, ignoring the law of conservation of energy.
Individual freedom and incentives to work to full capacity are hopelessly irreconcilable with the stifling collectivism for which the Congress Party seeks a nationwide mandate in the 1962 elections.
