Sanjeev Sabhlok's Blog, page 96
February 8, 2019
Notes on India’s government failure
I had dictated these notes on Whatsapp a few days ago. Won’t have time to incorporate into any article at this stage, so posting these here for any future use: === Government failure hits you straight in the face in India after you leave the airport. Not only are the traffic conditions completely Third World […]
February 7, 2019
Review of Sagarika Ghose’s book, “Why I am a Liberal”
Sagarika has put in her heart and soul into an excellent book that I strongly commend to every Indian. The book is an engaging attempt to educate a country that has understood liberty only imperfectly through sporadic literary flourishes but has never really grown out of its feudal mai-baap mindset towards government. Gurcharan Das’s India […]
February 4, 2019
Quotes and extracts from Sagarika Ghose’s “Why I Am a Liberal: A Manifesto for Indians Who Believe in Individual Freedom”
I’m making notes here, which will inform my book review: SAGARIKA’S UNDERSTANDING OF LIBERALISM “The argument of this essay is in favour of social and economic liberalism in the belief that the two cannot be segregated” “The liberal, as we have been emphasizing, argues for a limited government—a limited role for the state—for the primacy […]
Yudhisthira’s dog – a fable that represents the pinnacle of human ethics
Nishkam Karma (desireless action) is an ideal worth following, But there is a really interesting tale of great moral value – from the Mahabharat. See this – a fine exposition. EXTRACT FROM GURCHARAN DAS’S BOOK, The Problem of Being Good. Finally the disillusioned Pandavas decide it is time to leave the world. Yudhishthira reminds Arjuna: ‘Time […]
Kolkata Police vs CBI vs Modi vs Mamata #KolkataPoliceCBI
A collection of cartoons and memes #KolkataPoliceCBI
I regret that Balaji Viswanathan (of Bangalore) is not a liberal. Cf. his attack on Naseeruddin Shah
Balaji Viswanathan is royalty on Quora with over 300 million views of his answers. Of course, he is also prolific on Quora, responding to over 4000 answers. My 240 (generally very quick, without much editing) answers are like “dabbling” in comparison. Balaji came over with his father in August 2016 to meet me in Bangalore […]
February 3, 2019
Scare campaign by BJP? Modi had better deny this publicly else the international media will tear into him.
Freedom of expression has long been on the back foot in India. In Modi’s India things have gotten from bad to worse. Someone has been sharing this on Whatsapp. This has all the hallmarks of a scare campaign. The text: Appeal to all group members is that no group member should forward photo of Sonia, Rahul, […]
Is there any merit in Yascha Mounk’s thesis about populist democracies? Not really.
I chanced upon Yascha Mounk through Sagarika Ghose (she’d particularly recommended that I read him, when I met her in October 2018). So what’s his main thesis? I’ve summarised from this paper. Who are populist leaders? “In a wide swath of countries across Europe and North America, a new crop of populists has entered parliament […]
February 2, 2019
My next TOI blog post: Managing congestion in India will require world class economic policy
In this I talk about solving India’s traffic congestion problem.
February 1, 2019
Cryptocurrency taxation – Take 2
I had written this around 18 months ago: How governments can benefit by imposing a range of taxes on cryptocurrency I’ve completely changed my mind regarding capital gains tax on the increase in the value of cryptos. Competitive neutrality requires that the government NOT tax the increase in value of cryptocurrency. If it were to do […]
