PM Debate: Businesses and Economy

*I am going to skip some stuff. Otherwise, only the debate will take more than ten chapters

"Satyankar ji, you have allowed foreign countries to set up their factories in India, but what we produced here is not to be sold in India itself for 20 years. Wouldn't the same thing happen again like it happened with the East India Company?"

"I understand your concern. That's why we implemented the Evil Company Prevention in the very constitution itself, didn't we?

Look, we can't just ban all foreign companies, and take India out of the global economy. Forget about the bad experience from English, French, Dutch and all the colonising companies. Just look back before 200 years.

Why was India always alternating between first and second position of the GDP, by a very large margin from whoever was third? Because, we got a lot of gold, that is money, from outside India through trade. We had great trade relations with Africa, South East Asia, and don't even talk about Europe, where we absolutely dominated.

Did you know that Indian textiles were banned in many European countries, but the rich nobles went on to smuggling them? Why was Roman Empire's economy so bad that it collapsed? Because our glass making almost caught upto them, but they didn't have spices to preserve their food. Our peppers played a huge part in its bankruptcy.

The difference happened, because we were no longer in control of our products in the colonial rule. India, who exported the most finished clothes was no forced to stop its production, and just let British loot its raw resources at dirt cheap prices.

Now though, we won't sell our raw resources. Only finished and semi-finished products. You can't just remove Indian cotton and other materials from the world market, it will cause very high inflation, and force the people to move on to harmful chemical materials.

So, make your clothes here, employ the people, give them their deserved salary, and it will be still cheaper to export from India than to produce in their own country. It's a win-win, and that's called business.

Now, there are evil companies, that don't deserve to set foot here. I will give some examples.

Nestle. Did you know that it marketed that it's powder milk is better than mother's milk? If you have no problem playing with people's health, especially children just to make money, then we don't have any problem not having you here.

I will also give you the most recent example. There is a company called Dupont, which makes non-stick pans, synthetic clothes, and other chemical stuff. It opened its factory for synthetic cloth production in a small city in Bengal, and despite the regulations against dumping unprocessed waste, it dumped its toxic waste directly in the river. Moreover, it tried to sell Teflon plated pans, which are poisonous. I don't know how it is selling in USA when it is poisoning its entire population, but this won't fly here.

If a company does that, it will have to leave, and all its assets will be confiscated for recovering the harm done. That's what happened, and it is fighting a case in Kolkata High Court to get back its assets atleast. Though, I don't know why it still hasn't made news in the US mainstream media, since Dupont is not a small company.

Anyway, at any point of history, at any place in the world, if a company, or even it's parent company, does evil things, it will be removed from India.

There are always good and bad mangoes on a tree. Good are almost always more than the bad ones. So, we will not allow the bad ones to be sold to the people, not cut down the whole tree and ban mangoes altogether.

Money isn't something that grows on trees. There is a fixed amount, most of it was taken out of India. So, we have to bring it back, and even more in the future. Outright banning global economy will make the money inside India itself flow around, which isn't much.

Isn't this exactly what British did to destroy India? Removed us from the global economy? Isn't that what made us dirt poor?"

"Now Nehru ji, what is your take on it? Under congress, will foreign companies be even allowed to operate?"

"Well, the answer is no, atleast for some years. We are hundred years backward compared to the other countries. If they are allowed to sell their products here, they will easily flood the Indian market. And regarding making products for other countries, like what is happening in Bengal, would make the resources scarce, and make things more expensive for ourselves.

Under congress, India will be a closed economy until it catches up, and be self-sufficient so that we don't need to rely on other nations."

Satyankar countered, "That's incredibly naive, Nehru Ji. No country can be self-sufficient in everything. We don't have oil. We are dependent on other countries for it. But, if we are not selling anything to the country selling us oil, the oil selling country can just stop selling us oil without any care.

Just think of how friendship works. Let's say, you and I are friends. I ask you for help in something, you ask for help in something. But, if I don't ever ask you for any help, keep everything to myself, do all the work that was supposed to be a group project myself, and don't interact with you. Will you be my friend then?

The argument about limited resources is very sound. That's why, we wouldn't let food to be taken outside. But, we produce more tea than we can consume. If we don't export some, the price will be too low to be able to support the tea plantation workers, and their lives will continue to worsen. We don't have much people who can buy cars, but we have a very huge number of people who can make cars. So why not make it and sell to other countries?

Look at Bengal right now. Just some years ago, it was forced to suffer the second worst famine in its history, and the worst famine also happened to it years ago due to the British.

There was a time when mother's milk won't come out, and they were forced to let newborns taste opium to keep them from crying. Many would throw their kids. There were entire wells that needed to be cleaned up, because it was filled with the corpses of kids instead of water.

But now, more than 80% of the people are employed some way or other, majorly construction and factories. Why, due to foreign investment. We don't have enough money to invest so much without other players. Now, in just two and a half years of Independence, more than 90% of the people are atleast eating one meal daily. More than 60% are eating two meals daily.

If we have a intensely closed economy like the congress plans to, the process to uplift the people will take a lot of time, generations even. Government doesn't have enough money do everything by itself afterall.

The supply and demand needs to be monitored, yes. But, isn't it exactly what the government will do? If things become expensive, we will decrease the exports. If it becomes too cheap, we will increase the exports.

Like I said before, regulate, instead of banning the whole thing. And the evil companies are exceptions to these though. You can't trust a murder to live in your house after some fines, can you?"

Some more questions were asked, and then, a very important question was asked.

"So, will India be socialist or capitalist?"

While both Nehru and Satyankar gave the same answer, 'a mixed economy, Satyankar expanded upon his vision.

"First of all, we don't need to see USA and USSR as an example of what suceeds and what doesn't. We have our own history to see what works best.

We had the free-st market, the most business minded people in the world. We worship Lakshmi, when the others saw money as a sin.

But, we had too much free market, and that led to colonalisation.

For generating wealth and prosperity, capitalism is very, very crucial. But, we also need to make sure that the people with capital don't take advantage of people without it. So, we will limit the amount of land a family living together can hold, fight against hoarding of food, etc. But, as long as a person lives morally, the person can use his money to create businesses and get more money.

In any society, the rich are required as much as the not-rich. If we crush any hopes for the people to get rich, they won't work hard, and the country will never progress.

We will provide the basic things like education, water, food and health to the people affordably. So that, any person, no matter the background, can become rich through hard work. This is the moto of the SuperCities. Afterall, money is the biggest motivator for the people to continue on with their lives.

If everything is controlled by the government, it will lead to corruption, and low quality if it becomes a monopoly. If everything is controlled by the private players, they will form a monopoly, and make things expensive.

In any country, we need balance. And, it's not like either capitalism or socialism are good or bad. It depends on how you use them.

The best example of both capitalism and socialism working together are AMUL and MILK (Madinipur India Lacto Kompany).

I know that the Cold War has already started, and both sides will try to demonise the others. But, for us, both ideologies work. As long as they don't go extreme. Extremism in any ideology, economic or religious, will destroy the country."