Indira’s Socialism Is Shortcut To Slavery

Summary

This one-page newspaper article reports Minoo Masani’s criticism of Indira Gandhi’s socialism and predicts that her electoral gamble will fail. Masani argues that socialism reduces people to a “property-less status,” echoing Karl Marx’s distinction between a free person and a slave, but contends that Marx’s remedy was fatal. The article presents private property and individual ownership as the alternative to the state-directed systems associated with China, Russia, and other countries.

Key points

• Minoo Masani predicts that Mrs Gandhi’s electoral gamble will fail and that she will return substantially weakened.
• The article links socialism to the reduction of people to a property-less status.
• Masani distinguishes between Marx’s diagnosis of exploitation and what he calls the fatality of the Marxist remedy.
• He defends private property and argues that taking property away from everyone leads to total slavery.
• The article criticises excessive bureaucracy, investment controls, and the absence of a clear policy programme from Mrs Gandhi.
• Masani argues that the Grand Alliance lacks credibility because its parties share no common programme.
• The article records Masani’s opposition to Pakistan’s alleged complicity in an attack on an Indian Airlines plane and to Soviet interference in Indian elections.