I was no great fan of Margaret Thatcher, but I agree with her views expressed sometime in the late 1980s, that I chanced upon to read. So very relevant to India which is ruled right now by the most unscrupulous, near-sighted bunch of politicians that form this unholy alliance called the UPA. But the people get the kind of rulers they deserve, I guess.
This is what Thatcher said back then:
"I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations.."
A very bold thing to say, for a Prime Minister of a country. That too for a democratically elected one. I can't imagine a single politician in India to have the guts to say something of this nature in public.
The problem with socialism, if it is not checked, is the growth of (more often than not) the apathetic, irresponsible individual. Consider this:
- A man loses his money that he unwisely, against all conventional wisdom, invested in a dubious firm. He then organizes protests, dharnas and the like along with similarly affected people demanding that the government intervene and help get the money back.
- A man takes up a dangerous assignment in a war-torn country like Afghanistan, Iraq etc., knowing fully well the risks involved. No sooner does he get abducted by militants, than do his family appeal to the government (usually with the help of a paparazzi-like media) to get him released. If he gets killed, the families even demand compensation, as if the man died serving the armed forces! And to make things worse, the government even pays them using tax-payer's money.
All too familiar happenings in this country. Of course, I do know that people do take up jobs of this nature because of they badly need the money, but why should the government (actually tax-payers!!) pay for an individual's folly?
This over-dependence on government results, like it has right now in India, in producing a "robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul" brand of politics. This, is then extended by political parties to offer free-power, free-TV sets etc., to bribe people into letting them remain in power, so they can loot more, which in turn allows them to become more powerful and these policies, till the country is run-down completely. Sort of like the Story of Ten Men....
Politicians will not change policies, only their colours to suit the circumstances, so they can survive and hold on to power. It is the people who need to take the required responsibility of running their lives (and that of their families) and let the politicians do what is expected of them in a good democracy. To govern. Take care of law and order, justice, education and healthcare. Nothing else.
