Civilisations, Economics and the Constitution - Dr M R Venkatesh

Anusha Srinivasan Senior Partner and daughter of D Rangaswamy,  in the Memorial Lecture, it made her feels taller and emotional lecture. A person with lot of wit, wisdom, there is a book on him called a compassionate accountant. 

Dr M R Venkatesh, CA in 1992, 2018 awarded doctorate by Shastra University, practising advocate. Authored and published several book. He speaks on 'civilisation, economics and constitution'. He said he was humbled and privileged to address the audience from where he had listened to so many people. 

Now to the subject proper,  'civilisation, economics and constitution', fascinating that debates are held without ill will. Fascinating, illuminating people from diverse walk of life wrote the constitution. It is concerning that aspect of public life, that all are passionately involved. At the time of Independence, Nehru a known agnostic, who never spoke about soul of people, used the phrase soul of nation. 

14th of 2022 as I got the book only on 4th of Feb.

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance...

...The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over. And so we have to labour and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world."

An excerpt from Jawaharlal Nehru's Tryst of Destiny speech, August 15, 1947

What is the soul of nation? Bushido : Bu-Shi-Do : The soul of Japan. There are different civilisations in the world driven since 1776 and 1789 resolution of America and France - and there would be clash of civilisation - would there be clash of the souls as well? West is a compass driven civilisation, others are determined by geography. Nations wanted sovereignty and freedom. American's civilisation, wanted absolute freedom. French wanted equality, liberty and fraternity. Freedom and Equality are antithesis. America today, is following more of French ideologies. 

Core of our issues and how we have created our Macro Economics. - 5th Dec. 1947, based on Nandini Sarkar report, tax structure was decided and implemented based on 1935 Govt. of India act. We cannot fix an economic policy for future generation to follow - Ambedkar said. The term Welfare state, which is not in the constitution, crept into the judgment. London School of Economics have a secret document by Labour party, for development of London, found in Hitler's bunker. First we became socialist country, we became obsessed with tax, and felt all the rich are villains. This socialism did not find a great landing, and Animal Farm movement was started. 1990's we had our liberalisation and we started progressing. World Economic Forum - WEF wants to bring back, Wealth tax, inheritance tax, if we go by history, taxes have created broken democracy. Roman emperor fall, was because of the inefficient democracy. Taxes have never helped any country to prosper. 

People always thought of duties and not rights. People happily went to the gallows. We are a nation, where the state have always been residual. Privacy is the fundamental right, but you want things delivered to your bedroom free of cost. Unfortunately this part - 'what is the duty of the state?' Article 12 only say what is a state, but don't define the duties. Then what you do? You tax people to a limit beyond which you cannot. Then you keep borrowing. If you have equal assets, it's fine, but when liabilities are not represented by assets, its risky. We do not know what is the exact position of each states. Single largest expenditure is salary, wages and pension - around 40%, 12% is interest. We should not pass on the liability to the next generation, irrespective of we giving asset or not. Miniscule Govt employees are sucking up huge percentage of the state revenue , disproportionate to their duties and responsibilities,  in the name of welfare state leaving very little for the development , resulting in large percentage of the population remaining poor despite their long years of hard work.

Robust individualism for the poor , and socialism for the rich is where we are. We have to see if the core mechanism of rights given, is workable from economic perspective. Article 292 - There must be a sealing for debts. Most abused act is the budget. We have always exceeded the fiscal deficit, revenue deficit is far more dangerous year of year since 1980. Socialism has failed India. Recklessness has paved way into lives. We cant bear this in silence. We need to proactively educate govt. Rajaji said it is easy to govern India, if we make people understand the duties. We have to go back, and make amends. We are oblivious to the effect this is having on economy. 

We have to draw from spirituality. When we look inward, we will derive strength. We have been looking out for strength. We should take best practises from everywhere in the world. We were prosperous civilisation upto 18th century. India was a sustainable prosperous civilisation. Spirituality was the soul of civilisation, with rule of Dharma.  We should not be carbon copy of the west. There should be a positive list and negative list for the states on what that can be done and not. Politicians promise, money to be paid - from our money. 

Solutions has to come from all of us, these are the thoughts. 

MRV's speech was shining light on certain dark spaces in our economy which was not seen hitherto and given its due attention.. Memorable, memorial lecture. Confessed, the thoughts expressed, were not learned in the classroom. It is way above. 

Huge topics, how are these going to be connected? Fundamental thing - 

• Dimension to look at taxation , public policy and nation by looking at the souls. 
• Civilisation of duties - is a timely call, and we need to participate in the nation's growth. Research should touch the soul of the nation. 

This was followed by unveiling of Flying High - 2 in the next post.