THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

I like Nehru. Wasn’t non- alignment an awesome strategy in the wake of cold war? Reading a bit on game theory, I realized that in any two party game, the ‘third way’ could be better for any third party as opposed to aligning with one of the two in which case one invites the wrath of the rival camp.


India’s policy wasn’t that of neutrality or isolation in the sense that we never ran out of the battle ground feigning to know nothing about the cold war politics. We were active and we were strategically important and we were not aligned. Both US and USSR as a result were involved in novel enticement tactics – there were entreats and connivances. We got food from the US in our ‘ship-to-mouth’ woes in the 60s while we countered the China-Pakistan-US axis in 1972 by signing the Treaty of Friendship with the USSR for 20 years.


Over the years I have learnt that middle ground is mostly better than extremes – it gets you sympathy from both ends while you end up making no enemies.


The other day, listening to an IDG talk by Mr. Vinod Raina, I discovered a similar viewpoint in this sense in another field. Think of India’s Constitution. It mentions the word ‘socialism’ in the Preamble as a reflection of the spirit of the Constitution while at the same time Article 19 (a) gives every citizen the right to engage in any trade, profession or occupation reflecting highly capitalist goals. Isn’t it a beautiful balance? Of course, I admit that these double views can end up creating more confusion that mere allusion – but it certainly is a good enticing tactic to keep all the groups in a diverse country happy and content!


Lately I have been highly impressed by the views of Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen on markets and equity. The logic goes thus – there are two types of common errors any human being or system commits –

1. The error of omission i.e. not doing something one was supposed to do
2. The error of commission i.e. doing something one was not supposed to do

I find the errors similar to the statistical errors in hypothesis testing. You may end up rejecting a right conclusion (Type 1 error) or you may end up accepting a wrong one (Type 2 error).


These errors pop up everywhere in our lives and around. So as the saying goes, ‘to err is human’ – it follows that all systems made my humans must also be prone to errors. Capitalism and socialism are man-made systems, afterall. While capitalism traces its roots to Hobbes’ social contract theory and views on individualism and liberalism, socialism evolved as Karl Marx’s solution to the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie under capitalism.


Dreze and Sen believe that neither extreme is flawless and both capitalism and socialism come with their own kitty of errors of omission and commission, which can sometimes be big bloomers than minute errors. While markets may fail to discourage parallel evolution of black markets, government may fail on grounds on distributing commensurate rewards to the most hard-working people.


So the word of the day is CO-OPERATION – in other words an amalgam of both the systems. Let the market take care of efficiency at the micro level while the visible hand of planning sees to the long term macro goals of the economy.

India, as always, went for a mixed economic model – enjoying the best of both worlds.


So the most important question is, why am I talking of this ‘both world theory’ at this time of the year?

The answer is SUS ELECTIONS at college. Its probably the best time of the year for students especially fuchaas when their views are heard and an uncanny respect for every single student of the college (excluding the opposition camp) evolves out of thin air. Suddenly our inboxes are full of election promises and suggestions. There is lively canvassing on the campus – its more like a ‘power mela’ where both camps are multicultural and claim the other to be a bigoted and regionalized one!

It seems like a battle between the ‘most hardworking candidate of the SUS last year’ vs. the ‘most hardworking candidate of the SUS last year’!!!

While I sit back deleting the bulk ‘vote for bla bla bla’ messages from my overflooded inbox, I wait for the open court tomorrow. I sincerely hope I am able to find some substantial difference between the agendas of both the camps so it becomes easy to decide – the most difficult decision to make is ‘choosing between equals’ or ‘perceived equals’!

In this scenario, what does the ‘best-of-both-worlds’ theory teach me, then?
Getting my demands fulfilled and my personal utility maximized from the either of the two winning!

...and btw yeah, you guessed it right…I plan to walk to the open court tomorrow wearing a white shirt and a black pant! :P