When Government Grows Society Shrinks

 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” - Ben Franklin

27 children died in a small village in Bihar, India when they consumed poisoned or spurious food served in school - courtesy a govt. run welfare program called "mid day meal".

This tragic incident has ripped apart many families and shocked the entire nation. People fail to comprehend how this can happen and who is to "blame" for this tragedy. Witch hunt has begun where local villagers are baying for the blood of the school Principal in who's house the food was presumably stored.
The govt. of the state is leaning on political conspiracy angle where it sees sinister political opponents destabilizing the govt. by murdering 27 innocent kids and sending away scores to the hospital. Then there are wise people of media who think that the failed distribution and storage system is to be blamed, some others blame the inefficient supply chain and the govt. agencies that execute such welfare programs, but no one has hit the nail on the head and blamed the wisdom of having such programs in the first place!


Why ? Because it is politically incorrect and mighty cynical to criticize programs that are supposedly designed to help "poor" kids to attend schools and get fed

No one knows the exact cause what happened, whether the food was contaminated by poor storage because of negligence, or spurious ingredients were procured because of "corruption" or some daring political group poisoned the food to get rid of the govt. of the day

Whatever the real cause was, the underlying reason for this kind of tragedy is the gigantic welfare program that is run by a very large and highly unaccountable bureaucracy where multiple govt. and semi govt. agencies work in tandem to achieve social utopia like feed all the starving kids in the country on their way to get educated.

When you get "free" food, you actually cannot question what is being fed to you, you just suck up and dig in. Its a perfect mouse trap - no tax payer dare question such program lest he be called out heartless capitalist pig who grudges free meals to starving kids and the ones who are fed the crap cannot say much because its free ! Between the guilt ridden section that funds and very weak section that survive on this handout is the mammoth and parasitic and ever expanding bureaucracy, not for profits and politicians who thrive at cost of the two. The only reason why such programs survive and outlive its utility is to feed the monster that run these programs

In more developed and nuanced society - very recently Mayor Bloomberg of New York City made it his business to regulate soda intake of people in his city.

He felt perfectly within his right to dictate the dietary habits of residents since the govt was funding public healthcare for the city of New York. When people "take" from the govt and expect the govt to provide for their basic needs they sign off their freedom and in case of Bihar their children's life

I am really disappointed that the tragedy has kicked in all sorts of debate but none that is focused on the true cause of this tragedy - the role that govt plays in people's life and the limits to that

Govt's  role is not to run people's lives but to provide security and rule of law. But India's tragedy is that despite the democratic framework it never got to experience true "freedom"

India's post colonial destiny was sealed by the founding fathers who were enamored by "socialist" European model. Universal suffrage coupled with urge for politicians to help people by feeding them gave rise to a political structure in the country where demagoguery in name of "helping poor" gained unprecedented currency. Govt ran airlines, factories, railways, buses and everything possible under the sun and eventually people's life. Egged on by Soviet Russia India's rulers created a socialist economy run on centralized planning. For more than 40 years the country did not flinch from its commitment to socialism even when it was quite evident that its a failing model. It was only in 1990's when exogenous and endogenous factors created a perfect storm, country under PVR first experimented with limited de-regulation with astounding results. But still the structure that was created post independence persisted because it was key to survival of a political-bureaucratic class that had thrived on soviet modeled socialism.

There has been numerous public protest against "corruption" in India. Most of the rabble rousing is around stricter laws to prevent corruption and punishing the corrupt. None of the debate focused on true cause of corruption - expanded govt and its role in the society. Ironically the solutions touted by torchbearers of anti corruption crusade is to expand govt even further - in name of "common man" - something that reminds us strongly about the Bolshevik Soviet revolution or early 20th century that brought untold misery to East Europe for nearly a century. The public discourse today is replete with rhetoric and superficial arguments, mostly vexing on symptoms than the malaise

The villagers, where the midday meal tragedy struck have pleaded the govt to end the program for good of everyone - perhaps they are for more enlightened than the so called urban "intellectuals" who are shaping the debate today