Handing more control to government

Many contributors in this circle ask for the government to interfere in every aspect of our life. Things like censoring OTT content, compelling people to wear masks, how to stop restaurants from including a service charge in the bill, impose control on the supply of processed food etc. to name a few. What we should all understand is that the government has certain specific responsibilities already but even there, they fall short of expectations. Anything with the word government stuck in front (government schools, government offices, government hospitals, government undertakings etc.) rarely stand for good quality and most of us try to avoid them altogether in favour of alternatives even though it means a stiff monetary cost to us. So let us NOT suggest handing over more control to the government, especially one which has come to power promising 'less government but better governance'.

Government officials are often found to be corrupt or incompetent or both. By enacting more regulations, we will have more government inspectors who will look over our shoulders and interfere in everything we do. And more often they will end up looking the other way when someone breaks a rule for a small consideration. For example, it is a well-known concept in most cities that you can violate any building codes with total impunity if we know which palms we should grease. Thus, the very purpose of government control is lost. It is not that we have less rules; we have plenty of them. But the discretionary powers vested with government employees always works against common citizens and benefits those who exercise this discretion. And then we keep crying about corruption in government. So why give more opportunities to them to be corrupt?

I once read an article in an American magazine about why people in US are so fond of guns (the right to bear arms is given to them by the second amendment to the US constitution). It is not just for self-protection against other citizens or criminals. It is mostly for use against any future Government which tries to oppress them using force. In other words, they DO NOT trust the state (the government) to always work in the citizens' interests and would fight against a tyrannical state if a need for the same arises. Unfortunately, in India, no government or government servants have ever worked for the peoples' benefit but alas, we can only meekly put up with these leeches. more