Hereditary power is extremely harmful.

In a scathing comment the veteran politician Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party blamed the ' jholawallahs ' for the defeat of the Congress in the recent elections in 4 states. The term jholawallah means someone who is carrying a bag, usually made of cloth or jute. It is a pejorative term for those with socialist tendencies who go around doing, what they think is, good for the poor, a sort of NGO fellow in flipflops as it were. " Indira Gandhi was a strong leader. She used to take decisions and had the capacity to implement them, so during her time such jholawallahs didn't grow," he said. This has been taken to be a criticism of the National Advisory Council or the NAC of Mrs Sonia Gandhi which is an extra constitutional body dictating policies to the Congress led government. The NAC has 11 members under the chairmanship of Mrs Sonia Gandhi and, except Anu Aga who is a business person, all the others are socialists or ex civil servants. While the Right To Information act has been helpful the Council's interventions in economic policy have been nearly disastrous. The NREGA scheme has cost Rs 2 trillion since 2006. It has resulted in a jump in rural wages by setting a floor, which has contributed to the massive food inflation, and has increased fiscal deficit. Had the same money been invested on roads and electricity it would have encouraged business and helped the poor by increasing the number of jobs. Undeterred the NAC was instrumental in the passage of the Food Security Bill, which will further add to the deficit, and isolated India at the WTO meeting in Bali recently and forced a compromise which maybe very costly in the future. However, the Council is strong only because the government is weak. Our most revered Prime Minister was built up as a World Famous Economist by the freeloading press so he should have protected the country against woolly headed social schemes or resigned in protest. Our most revered Finance Minister declared such schemes were ' game changers ' but is now going around blaming his predecessor for the impending credit downgrade to junk status. To balance its budget the Congress has increased taxes to unbearable levels, further reducing demand. Perhaps next year's elections will eliminate all families and truly liberate India. We can only hope and pray.