Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Red rags and bulls
The comrades have lost it. Long used to ranting and raving at trade union rallies in India, someone forgot to tell them running a country was a slightly different proposition. So, they see nothing wrong with going on national TV in India and making comments that cause $50 billion to be wiped out of the stock market, despite knowing that the markets would be nervous in a time of transition.
They also keep claiming the India has given them a mandate to change economic policy. Lets examine this claim. The comrades have 63 seats in a parliament with 545 seats. 35 of those are from West Bengal and 18 are from Kerala, the only parts of the country that have been nuts enough to elect them over a long period of time. From the rest of country, they have 10 seats. It's a tremendous leap of faith to read some kind of countrywide mandate from those numbers.
The other interesting thing about the comrades is the difference is posturing between the intellectual ideologues (translation: the ones that have never run a government) and the ones that have run governments. So, while Jyoti Basu, Budhadeb Bhattacharya etc have been measured in their reaction, Comrade Bardhan, Comrade Yechury etc see no reason for any moderation. Capitalism is an evil that *must* be destroyed. The buggers!
PS: One last comment about the markets. I would not be surprised if there is a bear cartel at work exploting the stupidity of the comrades.
They also keep claiming the India has given them a mandate to change economic policy. Lets examine this claim. The comrades have 63 seats in a parliament with 545 seats. 35 of those are from West Bengal and 18 are from Kerala, the only parts of the country that have been nuts enough to elect them over a long period of time. From the rest of country, they have 10 seats. It's a tremendous leap of faith to read some kind of countrywide mandate from those numbers.
The other interesting thing about the comrades is the difference is posturing between the intellectual ideologues (translation: the ones that have never run a government) and the ones that have run governments. So, while Jyoti Basu, Budhadeb Bhattacharya etc have been measured in their reaction, Comrade Bardhan, Comrade Yechury etc see no reason for any moderation. Capitalism is an evil that *must* be destroyed. The buggers!
PS: One last comment about the markets. I would not be surprised if there is a bear cartel at work exploting the stupidity of the comrades.
