{"id":1888,"date":"2010-03-14T22:08:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T17:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2010-03-14T22:08:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T17:08:06","slug":"problem-with-labels-right-left-liberal-etal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2010\/03\/14\/problem-with-labels-right-left-liberal-etal\/","title":{"rendered":"Problem with Labels – Right, Left, Liberal etal"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent 90 odd minutes today debating – “challenging Left Liberalism” on the offstumped community portal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I am pretty much a Liberal <\/a>centrist <\/a><\/strong>moderate\u00a0 who has a 10 degree oscillation on issues to the left and right. There are policy issues on which I may agree with either, neither or sometimes both. For example – GM – the Indian Left & the right were in tandem on this issue. or the Women’s reservation bill – ditto.<\/p>\n

I have a problem with labels because they tend to straight jacket views and opinions and polarise discussion – which may make for great spectator sport, but achieves very little in terms of tangible goals.<\/p>\n

In India most of these labels break down. I don’t know why but they do. Most parties seem to occupy more or less similar positions on most issues. the points of dissension tend to be Minorities – be they gender, religious, ethnic, caste etal. and policies regarding these minorities.<\/p>\n

Just as the cold war was between right wing \u2018conservatism\u2019 & right wing socialism \u2013 In India the sides are left wing \u2018conservatism\u2019 and left wing socialism in various various avtaars<\/em>. .I see right wing socialism from the BJP and left wing socialism from the Communists. The Congres, is somewhere in the centre.<\/p>\n

Of all the parties \u2013 I see the Congress, or rather the UPA, being more free market. I see the BJP having a slightly more aggressive stance on National security \u2013 but \u2013 if I leave out \u2018secularism\u2019 and do a blind test between the parties \u2013 they are in more or less the same space.<\/p>\n

Be it reservation \u2013 caste or gender; be it social welfare \u2013 in terms of NREGA or education \u2013 politically there is a broad consensus that it ought to be done. There may be dispute on the modalities \u2013 corruption, leakages, no reservation for religious minorities, no reservation for women etal \u2013 but no one is opposing any of these \u2018conceptually\u2019.
_____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

I see Liberalism \u2013 as essentially standing for freedom \u2013 freedom of choice, freedom of market, freedom of individual, freedom to be, and a modern Constitutional Republic being one that guarantees these freedoms. I don\u2019t see any of these parties really standing for these values \u2013because their entire power base is vote bank driven . This entire \u2018majority minority\u2019 fault line that is referred to in the question \u2013 is also a result of these vote bank politics.<\/p>\n

And then I see this fringe \u2013 both on the left and the right that will protest at anything \u2013 that that is that is made up of the Arundati Roy\u2019s and the Pramod Muthalik\u2019s of the world . They exist on the left and right \u2013 and tend to scream shout and grab media attention.<\/p>\n

Now, if we are going to use the neo conservative label of \u2018left liberal\u2019 with all its associations of the \u2018loony fringe\u2019 and that includes the Indian equivalent of being anti big business and pro gay marriage or Anti state \u2013 then the answer is no \u2013that group if it exists is barely organised or indeed in agreement on a variety of issues. However, these groups tend to be more elite \u2013 and therefore can occupy more media space and are \u2013 IMHO \u2013 fairly colonised in their thinking. The kind of people who will talk about Indian issues with the US constitution as a reference point.. I have had \u2018debates\u2019 with them where, for example, theism would immediately be countered by \u2018do you believe in evolution\u2019<\/p>\n

But, I believe it is more arm chair rather than any direct involvement ! It is also got the wrong reference points ! but these are convenient reference points for the ELM to latch on to and further the debate. And, to be very honest \u2013 the same is the case with the right wing \u2013 the western reference points in terms of Nationalism and National Identity – which breaks down in a multi dimensional entity like India.<\/p>\n

All sides of the debate \u2013 have taken on very firang <\/em>definitions & positions \u2013 that neither accounts for the differences in history, nor the diversity of India, nor the unique developmental challenges. They have taken on values from more or less homogeneous states and societies and tried to transplant them here. So, the debates that I have followed on the net are more in the \u201cHindutva\u201d v\/s \u201cSecularism\u201d space rather than balanced budget v\/s \u201cSocial Spending\u201d space. I guess the former is easier to disagree\/agree on.<\/p>\n

Economics is very rarely discussed. There may be an occasional outcry on the farm loan waiver, or a diatribe against Nehruvian planning \u2013 and how it is bad for the economy, but very rarely do we discuss the fact that an average of Rs.50,000 crores annually is given as subsidy to fertilizer companies \u2013 that possibly distorts the entire market ! There is little focus on now and tomorrow. Most of the focus is historic – and the tack seems to be ‘they misbehaved then, i have a right to misbehave now’ – fairly juvenile and not very productive in terms of achieving anything! it often seems like a fight between kids in the 3rd standard !<\/p>\n

Most groups are still stuck on the Hindu v\/s Muslim (yawn !!) issues with little attention given to economics or strategy \u2013 except that it would be broadly pro regulation \u2013 yet not clear on how much; broadly anti-Pak, look blank about China, Think of Africa as a place where they could go on Safari, South America being somewhere out there !
And, of course the fact that we should do ‘something’ about poor people who live in the villages – a line that has me cracking up with laughter !<\/p>\n

These also tend to be very absolutist \u2013 for example M.F.Hussain. Does he have the right to paint \u2013 of course. Does someone else have the right to protest against those paintings \u2026.. they are more ambiguous ! or Should people learn local languages – and can non violent protest be a way of ensuring that ? We may agree on that there should \u2018be no violence\u2019 but for some reason \u2013 we are anti \u2013 protest – and decry protest -against our pet causes – as being misguided.<\/p>\n

In all this \u2013 the Middle Path is muddied. And, for me, India has always been about the middle path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent 90 odd minutes today debating – “challenging Left Liberalism” on the offstumped community portal I am pretty much a Liberal centrist moderate\u00a0 who has a 10 degree oscillation on issues to the left and right. There are policy issues on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,53,15,21,23,3,42],"tags":[446,755],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-desi-pundit","category-development","category-economics","category-gender","category-india","category-politics","category-society","tag-desi-pundit","tag-india"],"yoast_head":"\nProblem with Labels - Right, Left, Liberal etal - A PoV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2010\/03\/14\/problem-with-labels-right-left-liberal-etal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Problem with Labels - Right, Left, Liberal etal - A PoV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I spent 90 odd minutes today debating – “challenging Left Liberalism” on the offstumped community portal I am pretty much a Liberal centrist moderate\u00a0 who has a 10 degree oscillation on issues to the left and right. 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