Tag: Fiscal Transfer

There are a lot of smug South and West Indians on the internet who think that helping out our poor states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan etc. is wasteful expenditure and are asking why comparatively rich states of the union like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka etc. should support the poorer states. What is worse is the fact that most of these arguments are coming from the self-claimed nationalists and Hindutvawadis of the internet. It is a disgrace to the actual Nationalists of India that such pathetic questions from the supposedly nationalistic right wingers need to be addressed. One usually expects such disgraceful “what’s wrong with pimping the motherland for a few bucks?” type questions to be asked by the usual motherland-selling Communists, Maoists and Chrislamists — not the Hindu nationalists. Nevertheless, this is the level to which the discourse in India has stooped, and hence the need to address it in a manner and language deserving of these snakes and traitors masquerading as nationalists.

Questioning the right of Bihari labourers to work outside Bihar is a malignant idea

This is a very malignant idea to begin with, even though it might look to many half-informed people as a very legitimate point — specially to those who take their economic policies from the half-retards at Breitbart on immigration. India is a nation state and single unified country, a fact which many of these supposed nationalists seem to forget when questioning the right of anyone to migrate and work within India. Every Indian has the right to move, work and settle in any place he wants. India is the homeland and motherland of every Indian born here and hence the very basis of this question reeks of anti-nationalism.

This is the reason why Article 370 of the Constitution, which protects Jammu and Kashmir from the free movement and settlement of the rest of Indians, is a very malicious and divisive one. Making these kinds of arguments will lead to the creation of an Article 370-like situation in every state in India. Strangely enough, these same nationalists who oppose Article 370 (and rightfully so) don’t feel ashamed when questioning the movement of Bihari labour to other more fortunate parts of India.

Debunking the myth that Bihari migrants are a strain on the local economy

This has been debunked by every single economics paper and study on the entire planet. All cases of immigration, specially those where the immigrants are working for their livelihood, is good for the economy as a whole. Each immigrant adds a pair of working hands to the local economy and the society he migrates to. The greatest resource of any country is human resource — and hence immigrants add the biggest resource to the local economy.

In fact, logically speaking, immigrants are a better human resource than the local population. Unlike the local population which had to be supported from ages 0–15 by the local economy, immigrants from Bihar arrive already grown-up and in working age. They add to the economy and working population from day one without being dependent on the local economy.

Ironically, many of the people who sprout hatred against immigration from Bihar were also against emigration to Saudi Arabia, UAE or USA. Their concerns about India losing talent and human resource to host countries is quite valid. But for some reason, they don’t seem to apply the same logic that migration to their home states from less fortunate states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is good as it brings human resource. Bihari bhaiyyas endure such hardships because the situation back home for them is even worse. They would rather save some money by working in richer states and send it back home for their poor kids.

Immigrant remittances help to ease up the wealth inequalities among states to a large extent. And by working in other states, they gain valuable experience and can in the near future establish new businesses to create jobs back home. This is a win-win situation for everybody. Of course, wages will drop in the short run in host states — but the lower wages are also responsible for lower overall costs for consumers in the local economy as a whole. So banning immigration to keep wages high is as brilliant as banning power-looms to keep wages from hand looms high — fully retarded. Thanks to the possibility of immigration, the economic engines of rich states continue to run. But sadly, the immigrants who help in this miracle only get contempt from their supposedly nationalistic Indians.

Why transfer of tax and wealth from rich states to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is justified

One has to wonder what kind of Hindutva or nationalism these people follow when they have a problem with the transfer of wealth from one Hindu to another Hindu or one Indian to another Indian. Is the transfer of taxes from rich states to poorer states any different from taxing rich people to pay for the poor — which is how any government anywhere in the world operates?

These people claim to be Nationalists and Hindutvawadis but are unhappy with the transfer of wealth within the same nation and among Hindus. Even worse is the fact that they whine about wealth transfer although it is not even that significant — there is barely a 15% per capita transfer difference between rich states like Maharashtra and poor states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Also, the same people malign the poor development record of Bihar but per capita development expenditure of Bihar is less than 50% of India’s average. Do we really expect our poor brothers from Bihar to catch up when they get half the development assistance compared to average India?

Per capita development expenditure is much lower in Bihar

Historical step-motherly treatment of Bihar

Bihar deserves far more wealth redistribution and compensation if we are fair and neutral. Bihar was impoverished by systemic discrimination by the central government since independence. The planned transfers to Bihar in every 5-year plan have always been much lower than the average. As the data shows, Bihar got much lower than projected expenditure in each plan — unequal distribution of resources against one state for such a long duration can hardly be justified.

Plan Allocation to Punjab and Bihar since independence

Also, one cannot forget about the freight equalisation policy, which killed the competitiveness of any industry in Bihar till 1991. Under this policy, basic raw material like steel and coal, abundantly available in Bihar, was made available at a constant price across the entire country. But what it essentially did was blunt the competitiveness of Bihar while allowing coastal states to prosper at its expense. Having a coastline already improves competitiveness due to easy access to the world economy — and freight equalisation ensured that Bihar lost the only source of competitiveness it had. So when the reforms of 1991 happened, the other coastal states which were already well placed leap-frogged in development while Bihar-UP stayed stuck in a vicious cycle of crime and under-development.

It should be emphasised that when these RW types whine about being robbed to pay for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, they follow the exact same propaganda as Maoists used in Bihar and Chattisgarh. Should Bihar and Chattisgarh now take over their mines and ban the use of vast natural resources from being used elsewhere in the Union — using the same logic these people seem to use? Isn’t this line of thinking as dangerous as the Chrislamist/Maoist version of political discourse?

Of course, even worse is the hypocrisy the South Indians — specially the Tamils influenced by Tamil nationalist snakes like Simon Sebastian Seeman of Naam Tamizhar Katchi — display when discussing this issue. These are the same people who salivate at the prospect of the river water linking project of Ganga with Cauvery. Do they have any shame that they want to share water from the same UP-Bihar belt but not their money?

Additionally, some people think that Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will always be backward. But this goes against the civilization history of Bharatvarsha. Historically the Gangetic plains have always been very rich, the seat of important power and the nursery of our civilization. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with a few years of good governance have already broken out of the BIMARU state tag — so there is no reason to think that UP and Bihar cannot. If given enough time, our Bihari and UP bhaiyyas will catch up with the rest of India. Till then, it is our duty as fellow citizens to help our brethren. Why else do we have the union of India if not to help each other in our times of weakness?