When rights are wrong.

An article by Yamini Aiyar of the Centre for Policy Research and Michael Walton, Lecturer in International Development at Harvard University, seeks to analyse what went wrong with all the laws giving rights to the poor in the form of the MGNREGA, Right to Education, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Food Security Act among others. " But the problem is that the laws simply did not go far enough," they write. They, one of them an American, see nothing wrong in treating people like lobotomised beggars, dependent on the state to provide for everything without any responsibility to the nation or to their fellow citizens. But, as communist countries found, wasting vast sums of money on unproductive social programs only increases budget deficit, causes inflation, reduces growth, thus reducing employment opportunities, and increases poverty, the opposite of what these programs set out to achieve. To fill the hole in the budget the government resorts to very high taxation on every goods and service, increasing prices and reducing demand. Between April and December manufacturing, which generates the most jobs, shrank by 0.7%. So how are the rich getting richer? The massive corruption in the last decade, the 2G scam, the Coalgate scam and others, has been a result of collusion between politicians and business fellows where telecom spectrum, coal fields and land were given away to cronies at dirt cheap rates. The newly developed Mumbai airport, with its acclaimed art collection, charges Rs 303 from domestic passengers and Rs 616 from international passengers, presumably only for departure but Delhi airport charges both for departing and arriving passengers. Rs 550 for departing and Rs 465 for arriving domestic passengers while for international travelers the rates are Rs 1270 for departure and Rs 1048 for arrival. This when the consortium that renovated the airport has been given surrounding land to develop. In a scary promise in its election manifesto the Congress promises to create 100 million new jobs. How? More MGNREGA? Mr S Birla, President of FICCI attempts to defend business people from charges of criminal conduct. Perhaps he could explain why everything we buy is either imported or made by foreign companies. Why waste energy manufacturing anything when rent seeking is much easier and lucrative? If they want to restore their reputations business fellows must demand an end to rights without responsibilities. But do they want to upset the politicians?