Saturday 2 April 2016

‘Smart Cities’ and ‘Smart Regulation’



Whenever commentators, academics and policy-makers call for ‘Smart Cities’ , I end up scratching my head, asking myself the question- do these people think that our cities are dumb ? Let's get this adequately clear- Cities are smart. Have been and always will be. The reason our cities are in a mess when compared to Chinese, Japanese or Western cities is that our administrators and governments are dumber than theirs. Way dumber !
Why do I call our governments dumb?- They refuse to recognise that cities are evolving systems which work better when guided by the invisible hand of the market. Our governments still think that they can do a better job of guiding the functioning and evolution of cities than markets. They think of themselves as gladiators fighting for the interests of the urban poor when they do little more than collect hafta from developers and keep us all in a collective state of misery.
For that reason, I’ve come to see that calls for smart regulation are dangerous no matter how well intentioned they are. Governments take this as endorsements to their assumed role of guiding (read- wrecking) the growth of cities. They will continue to make master plans to keep us urbanites less productive than our peers in other countries.
Recently, Ashwin Mahesh- a noted commentator on Urban affairs wrote an article supporting the resuscitation of the BMLTA (Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority) in Bangalore so as to bring about more synergies in the two modes of transport in the city -  Bus i.e  BMTC and Metro. Smart Regulation eh ?. The reason he gave was that there are coordination problems in the market at present and hence the efficiency of the public transport system in Bangalore was sub-par. What he forgot to mention was the reason there are coordination problems in the system- It's run by the government ! A legal monopoly courtesy Sec 99 of the Indian Motor Vehicles Act,1988. ! .  A better option exists- removal of the monopoly and privatization of BMTC. ‘Prices’ work as better coordinating  mechanism than governments. All other mechanisms are poor cousins of the Market based Price System. I fail to understand this aversion to entrepreneurial solutions to the problem of Urban mobility.  
R Jagannathan a wrote a while back - ‘ Smart Cities need a transparent land-use and building permits policy. ………………Smart land use policies actually create more land and more public and road spaces.’. It is these two lines which prompted me to write this lengthy response. Here too, the emphasis is on ‘Smart Policy’ and ‘Smart Regulation’. It ignores the fact that only the most minimally interventionist Land Use and Building Permits Policy can be transparent. Anything else is already corrupt or will soon be.  Smart Land Use Policies create no land for anything. Any ‘Land Use Policy’ has only one impact- reduce availability of land for more productive uses. What is needed is a Land Use Policy which is minimally interventionist. Anything else is usually dumb and keeps any city from reaching it’s full potential !.

Commentators who make well intentioned calls for ‘Smart Regulation’ of cities need to emphasise that they are asking for minimal regulation. If not, our ‘all-knowing’ policymakers will take it as an endorsement for central planning of our cities !
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Monday 2 November 2015

A Criticism of India's Aviation Policy


Published in Swarajya on October 25th
http://swarajyamag.com/biz/excessive-government-interference-is-strangling-civil-aviation/

I view the performance of this government vis a vis the economy in poor light for a variety of reasons. The argument that it is better than the previous government certainly does have some truth to it but that shouldn’t become an excuse for the non/under-performance of the current government. One sector in which this government has performed disastrously is the Aviation Sector. In this article, I seek to demonstrate how.

‘PM Modi concerned over predatory pricing by airlines’; ‘PM Modi Wants Cheaper Airfares, Airlines to be told’.
Let us first look at what Predatory Pricing is --- it is one of the many popular myths about Markets which propounds the view that certain companies adopt a strategy of offering prices low enough to drive away competitors (i.e. lower than average cost) creating monopolies. It along with the other ‘evil’- price gouging; has very little economic logic to back it up. [1]
The first of the above two headlines is from Aug 27[2] and the second came out on September 2[3]. It took 6 days for the Prime Minister’s concern to shift from ‘Predatory Pricing’ to wanting ‘Cheaper fares’!!
 According to the second news report, i.e. on Sept 2, the MoS of Civil Aviation Dr. Mahesh Sharma said, "It is a competitive market that determines the pricing of air tickets but the government of India, including the Prime Minister, is concerned about passing on the benefit to passengers;….. Soon, we will have a meeting with airlines on predatory pricing." The benefit he is talking about is the reduced ATF prices- not out of any cut in central ATF taxes but a result of a fall in the global crude prices being passed on by Indian Oil Marketing Companies i.e. OMCs .
This isn’t the only time the Minister has revealed his lack of understanding of economics. On the 27th of June he had remarked[4] ,“Predatory pricing by airlines is a big issue. A large section of the public and even parliamentarians have raised the issue that airlines charge Rs 30,000-40,000 for a ticket when a passenger has to travel in some emergency.”
The fact that there is very little evidence to back up the charge of ‘Predatory Pricing’ hasn’t stopped our ‘Consumer-protection Associations’, politicians, and the pen-pushing bureaucrats from using it as an excuse for price control and a more regulated sector. It appears that the only ‘pricing policy’ of this government vis-a vis aviation seems to be- Interfere in Market Process erratically whilst following the dictum of maximum government.
Going back in time a little, we come across detailed suggestions from the Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju’s deputy MoS Dr. Sharma on how this ‘Pricing Policy’ can be structured as[5] :
a. Setting of Price Ranges for Airfares;
b. DGCA assessment of fares during different seasons for fixing ‘appropriate’ price caps; and
c. Using Air India’s fares as the basis for pricing mechanisms and then cutting Air India’s fares on select routes.

It is pertinent to note that although both Minister Raju and MoS Dr. Sharma have advocated some form of pricing regulation, MoS Dr. Sharma seems to be the one pushing for it rather vociferously. It is frightening to see a conservative government being led by a Prime Minister who frequently used ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’ in his campaign, advocate such brazen regulatory intervention into Aviation Markets!

Aviation Ministry’s Infighting –
Conflict within an organization isn’t good, especially so if the organization makes decisions which affect millions of people. The Aviation Ministry has been according to various news reports [6]plagued by infighting  which  might be the real reason behind the delay in release of the draft Aviation Policy. The Civil Aviation Minister appears to advocate less government intervention and has announced multiple times that the disastrous 5/20 rule will be scrapped. His deputy who seems to be gunning for his post- Dr. Mahesh Sharma does the exact opposite advocating institution of price control mechanisms and other forms of government intervention for the usual reasons, public benefit and air connectivity to backward areas.
Take the case of ‘Baggage Charges Incident’. Some no-frills airlines had proposed to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that they would charge for Check in Baggage and also institute a Zero Baggage Fare to enable light travellers to benefit from lower fares and at the same time encourage such light travelling. The MoS Dr. Sharma directed the Aviation Ministry on June 27th to disallow the same. The reason he gave was laughable – ‘Such a move, if allowed to go ahead will be a dampener in air traffic growth in India’. According to him, lower prices will lead to reduced demand for air travel. Is it too much to expect the Minister of State for Civil Aviation to know the Law of Demand and Supply? On July 1st, Minister Raju contradicted his Junior Minister’s remarks saying -
‘Nothing is free, everything is paid for, whether it is your baggage or ticket or things like that… Airlines at one point of time were considered elitist, now it is not and there are multiple people who (travel by air)’. He later remarked that this decision needs to left to the regulator.
This is not the only time such disputes and ‘Differences of Opinion’ have occurred in the ministry -
the NCR Airport Issue , regulation of fares in the festive season and many more.

Air India
Recently, Rohit Nandan’s successor as the CMD of Air India was announced as Ashwani Lohani , a non IAS officer (Thank the Gods!!, after 12 years). The new CMD calls himself Mr. Turnaround and is reputed to have turned around ITDC during the ABV years. Previously, Mr. Lohani has claimed that he will turnaround Air India within a year, if given a chance[7], which is hard to believe. Air India had asked for a revision of the original Turn Around Plan (TAP) under which the GoI had agreed to provide a 30,000 crore infusion into Air India over a period of 10 years in a phased manner subject to Air India achieving certain targets. SBI Caps which had prepared this turnaround plan had brilliantly assumed crude @ $45 for the entire period of the plan (It had made other brilliant assumptions[8]). One should rightly put the blame for that on the UPA government. The present government though has tasked the same SBI Caps with making the revision to the TAP and no matter how hard you try, the error this time is of our minimum government.
One would think that they would have atleast put a stop to the gravy train that Air India is to all sorts of powerful individuals – MPs, Management of Air India, the employees, and our bureaucrats; but no, this too continues in various forms. Our “Minimum Government “ continues to use Air India as a Foreign Policy instrument (continuing a long standing tradition), the latest instance of which was the announcement of non-stop flights to San Francisco from New Delhi during the Prime Minister’s recent visit to the US. This despite the fact that no viability study of the same has been conducted and such foreign operations have been bleeding Air India dry by contributing to almost 70% of the operational losses of Air India[9]! The Prime Minister funnily told the audience at the Facebook Townhall that his 4D’s include De-regulate (Dear Citizens of India, happy De-regulation!!). While this de-regulation happens, Air India continues to be the poison pill of Indian Aviation.
Green shoots of Progress-

The 5/20 rule.
The infamous 5/20 rule makes it compulsory for airlines to have a minimum of 5 years of flying history and 20 aircraft to be able to fly to overseas destinations. It is by its very nature anti-competitive as it prevents new entrants from operating certain routes of established airlines, thus lowering the prices. The only organizations which benefit from this rule are the established airlines like Jet Airways and IndiGo which are afraid of loss of margins due to increased competition in profitable international routes. 
I’m of the firm belief that the person who thought up this rule should be given an award of some sort. Only a brilliant mind can think up such innovative ways to screw the consumer.

The Minister of Civil Aviation Mr. Raju has repeatedly announced that this rule would be repealed. He has been announcing the same for almost 15 months and that’s about it. Though, no progress  has been made on actually removing the rule. Then we heard that the PM wanted the rule to go. Good News Finally?? Think Again. The Ministry of Civil Aviation in its infinite wisdom is thinking of ‘replacing’ the rule[10]. So we don’t know as of now how this issue will play out. But we still have to commend the Prime Minister for atleast taking a pro-growth stand as he reportedly said[11] - "If the rule is stifling the growth of our carriers, the rule should completely be abolished and not replaced. What is the need to replace a rule with something when the rule itself is not pro-growth,"

The Government needs to get out of the way!
For Indian Aviation to soar, the Government needs to take a relook at it’s policy of interference, high taxes, continuing to fund poison pills, and creating ever monopolising rules for the ‘public benefit’. It has to realize that this is the exact same policy which their predecessors tried and which has had disastrous consequences. It needs to learn to accept that they can’t run, control, and extort Indian Aviation while ‘planning’ their way out of Air India’s financial abyss. It needs to ‘Get out of the Way’ soon to achieve “Minimum Government” and de-regulation.



[1] For More on the same- http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/myth-predatory-pricing
[2] http://www.firstpost.com/business/pm-modis-concern-over-predatory-airfares-likely-cess-on-tickets-2410814.html
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Utopia

Utopia
Island where all becomes clear.

Solid ground beneath your feet.

The only roads are those that offer access.

Bushes bend beneath the weight of proofs.

The Tree of Valid Supposition grows here
with branches disentangled since time immemorial.

The Tree of Understanding, dazzlingly straight and simple,
sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It.

The thicker the woods, the vaster the vista:
the Valley of Obviously.

If any doubts arise, the wind dispels them instantly.

Echoes stir unsummoned
and eagerly explain all the secrets of the worlds.

On the right a cave where Meaning lies.

On the left the Lake of Deep Conviction.
Truth breaks from the bottom and bobs to the surface.

Unshakable Confidence towers over the valley.
Its peak offers an excellent view of the Essence of Things.

For all its charms, the island is uninhabited,
and the faint footprints scattered on its beaches
turn without exception to the sea.

As if all you can do here is leave
and plunge, never to return, into the depths.

Into unfathomable life.

IF there is any poem by Wislawa that Ive come to love, it is her poem Utopia. This ex- communist Polish poet speaks to my heart as I am an ex-communist myself.  I couldn’t confirm but I deduced through secondary sources that she wrote this poem sometime after 1960. That was the period during which the scourge of Communism/ Marxism was spreading throughout Europe like wild-fire. She had probably realised due to the Polish Government’s attempts to censor her poem; that the communist/ Marxist/ Socialistic ideology and their governance machinery was inherently fascist.
Like Islam is presented today by ideologues cum ‘intellectuals’ and fanatics as the answer to all human problems and the perfect solution; Communism was presented by leftist ideolouges, intellectuals, etc as the panacea to all human problems.

Wisława Szymborska-Włodek  (2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, and translator. She was the recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Szymborska was born in Prowent. She died 1 February 2012 at home in Kraków (a Polish City) from natural causes, aged 88.

Poland under the guidance of the leaders of the Soviet was heading towards the said ‘Utopia’; atleast they told their citizens that they were. An utopic world would be one with perfect knowledge
(Echoes stir unsummoned
and eagerly explain all the secrets of the worlds )
as well as equal prosperity. That the committees i.e. the Politburos of the world even thought that they through ‘collective action’ and ‘scientific committees’ could attain perfect knowledge was and continues to be laughable in itself. The part about shared prosperity turned out to be a farce in real life with hundreds of instances of mass starvation, rampant shortages and general statism. It was in this world that the poem  ‘Utopia’ was written by Wislawa Symborska.

The poet refers to the Utopic world as an Island. One wherin ‘ all becomes clear’ i.e. one with perfect knowledge. It may be wrong to read too much into a translated version of a poem but I find it extremely interesting that the poet has used the line ‘The only roads are those that offer access’. This is because every Tom, Dick and Harry in communist countries would offer a foreigner or a member of the elite access to the Politburo i.e. the uber elite in exchange for a large consideration. The poet then uses symbolism –‘ Tree of Valid Supposition ‘ and ‘Tree of Understanding’ to describe the intelligentsia in such an utopia who held beliefs about armed proletarian revolution which they could lead from their armchairs ; Dialectical Materialism in their eyes was true (A valid Supposition ) giving way to the Tree of Understanding which grew in the springs of ‘Now I get it’ . The communists used Marx’s fuzzy concept of Dialectical Materialism (The spring) to analyse everything from Human behavior to animal behavior (Tree of Understanding).

 The poet uses – ‘Valley of Obviously ‘, ‘If any doubts arise, the wind dispels them instantly.’ to again describe the said Utopia of perfect knowledge wherein all doubts are dispelled instantly. She is probably referring to Communist attempts to dispel all doubters through the dialectical red armies. The poet goes on describe the Island by personifying Meaning and Deep Conviction as caves on the Island ; she then goes on to say "For all its charms, the island is uninhabited,". People for all their demands of security  –financial and physical are too adventurous to remain in such a boring place where there is no purpose to life. She ends with the words ‘As if all you can do here is leave| and plunge, never to return, into the depths.|| Into unfathomable life. ‘The last lines capture the essence of the poem quite clearly.

The poet uses poetic devices like Personification by capitalizing words like ‘Tree, Understanding , Supposition, etc. She uses symbolism in a very elegant way – ‘On the right a cave where Meaning lies.
On the left the Lake of Deep Conviction .’ 


One wonders if she is writing about a Utopic world or a Dystopic world. Events in the 1980s proved that the latter was indeed true. The horrors of the Communist regimes in Asia and Europe came to be known by the rest of the world and the true face of the dystopic ,despotic regimes of Eastern Europe and Eurasia horrified the world by the scale of deprivation, large scale murder and oppressiveness. 
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Sunday 6 September 2015

On the Syrian Refugee Crisis

Ive so far refrained from commenting too much on the Syrian Refugee Crisis..
Its now becoming too entertaining for me to stay away...
1. The Middle-east crisis is a side-effect of civilizational collapse exacerbated by US Interventionism . They poured ghee on to the funeral pyre. Lots of it.
2. Most of the refugees are Sunni Syrians. This wholesale depopulation will strengthen Assad's hand.
3. You are foolish to expect Gulf countries to accept these refugees. They aren't countries, they are private property of the sheiks and these trespassers are a huge burden on their private purses.
This is what will happen in Europe
1. These 'refugees' will turn out to be so 'scarred' by the civil war that they will go straight into the inevitably welcoming arms of the Wahabi NGOs in al-Europe .
2. They will start ghettoizing and will inevitably start demanding state handouts as a right.
3. Usually, 2nd generation economic migrants start asserting their original ethnic/religious identities for various reasons; and end up radicalized. This radicalization will start in the first generation itself.
4. Racist movements will start and ultra-right wing parties will inevitably gain momentum. Watch out for MLP in France.
Other comments on this
1. Those of you who take out your hankies for this dead boy didnt take them out for those Yazidi children dying the same time last year. Nor did you read, re-read and share op-eds on the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in India who are now abandoned to fate by their own nation- this after facing the brunt of Jihad in the land they hold holy.
2. Far worse things have happened in the Levant. Shia men have been slaughtered (by knives) in the hundreds, Yazidi children and women have been raped and sold as property and killed after become useless for intended use.
3.The propaganda campaign by assorted liberals, Shariah- Bolsheviks and Salafi fucktards has been good this time around. The use of 'Useful Idiots' has been better.
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Thursday 30 July 2015

Cities and Aviation Policy

The economic potential of many good tier two cities like Mysore , Puducherry, Kanpur, etc have been stunted by the lack of speedy connectivity with the economic hubs of our country. One can be certain that the Land Acquisition mess wont be solved anytime in the near future. This decreases the possibility of speeding up connectivity through railways or bigger Highways. The only hope is Air Travel.

Let me take the example of Mysore. Although it has been on the nation's aviation map since the 1950s , it has extremely irregular services and as of now, even those services have stopped. So what's preventing Mysore, which is about an hour's travel by air from Bangalore from being properly connected by Air ? The short answer is the usual- Bad Government Policy.

The Union Government through the Aviation Ministry and the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has succumbed to a lobby of already existing airlines and stood silent as a cartel was formed. This cartel has lobbied the DGCA to create ever more complex rules to prevent entry of new players into their 'cash cow' markets such as international flying. Air Asia India’s CEO Mittu Chandiliya rightly said –‘ I believe in free markets and open skies, but if you look at the policies we have in place, I don’t think we have that at all.’ [i]

Our policymakers, in the false belief that airports and air travel isnt useful to the 'poor' that they supposedly serve have over the years created and enforced an extortive tax policy. The Union Government levies an 18% duty on Aviation Turbine Fuel(ATF) which includes 8% excise duty and 10% customs duty. A weighted average of the taxes the states levy is around 22%. So airlines end up paying around 28% of fuel expenditure as taxes. Compare this with China which has no consumption tax on Jet Fuel[ii] .

As Captain Gopinath writes in the ET – ‘..fuel and taxes constitute 45 per cent of an air ticket, airport charges exceed 20 per cent on long distance flights and make up more than 30 per cent of the airfare on shorter ones’[iii] What this ensures is – Airlines use countries like Singapore, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh for their MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) and many a times through clever scheduling- refuelling aircrafts. We are not only losing a lot of jobs due this policy, but the government is also losing a lot of revenue that could have been generated from these activities.

As usual, the response of the Ministry of Aviation is proposing a uniform ATF tax for the entire union which will subsume state taxes. Its been proposing one for about 7 years atleast now. Nothing has and ever will come out of it as states are demanding that fuel taxes be included in the exempted list for the Goods and Services Tax. That doesn’t stop them from foolishly trying it though. Recently, the Aviation minister started requesting states directly to reduce such taxes. It has started bearing some fruits in Andhra Pradesh where VAT on ATF was cut to 1% ! [iv].

Some other states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have tried this too and it is showing expected results i.e. more passengers, scheduled flights and newer routes[v]. It has also predictably led to fall in passenger fares. And guess what, most of the new flights are to small towns and cities as they don’t levy state taxes on ATF in these places. (The very justification of the infamous 5/20 rule and ‘domestic credits’ is to increase domestic connectivity to smaller towns and cities).

This increased connectivity is not only contributing to the local economy in terms of an increased tourism and hospitality sector, it is also enabling the advent of ecommerce in these towns and cities. It also enables local manufacturers to better integrate into national and global supply chains. A win -win aint it?


[i] . http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/airasia-india-chief-slams-red-tapism-wants-free-markets-and-open-skies-115062300306_1.html


[ii] http://www.platts.com/latest-news/oil/singapore/china-sees-limited-impact-from-higher-consumption-27888332


[iii] http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-07-08/news/51191434_1_aviation-sector-civil-aviation-new-airports


[iv] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Andhra-Pradesh-government-slashes-VAT-on-ATF-to-1/articleshow/42832229.cms


[v] http://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/small-town-india-takes-off-with-sharp-atf-cuts/
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Tuesday 28 July 2015

On Digital India

Observe the scheme carefully and how it operates...
Every Tom Dick and Harry in Electronics manufacturing announces a new plant for manufacturing X with capacity of Y/annum.Then a few days later, he writes op-eds and holds Press Conferences asking for a favorable duty structure. Government functionaries scared of a Modi pull up over not concentrating on Digital India in 'Mission Mode' usually acquiescence.
Digital India is brought up by every buffoon in the cabinet as a panacea to all ills and structural problems in Indian Industry. He/she is portrayed as a visionary minister using tech to solve problems by his media managers.
The government then announces that it will be investing N thousand crores in Telecom Infrastructure to enable the PM's Digital India dream to come true. Again statements are put out by Industry Leaders saying that Digital India is extremely important to India's future. 
Retards write op-eds on how improved connectivity due to government investment will enable Tier 2 cities to reach their full potential. What these baptist- bootlegger alliance of retards and buffons have managed to do is create an atmosphere wherein there is a general public demand for such badly structured investment.
To buttress the point the Digital India is amruta, new uses are pointed out- eliminating information asymmetries in Agricultural Markets (while continuously ignoring who caused those information asymmetries in the 1st place- government regulation in the form of APMC acts and ESMA ). The public- especially the middle class lap it up.
What is ignored is that government investment in this sector is 'needed' not because private players are not willing to invest there. They are! What prevents them from doing so is the amount of kickbacks they would have to shell out to government officials in the Center, State and Local Municipalities. There is also a general hysteria over telecom towers which governments have to mollify in the form of higher standards for towers. And as you all know, private players do a much better and efficient job then the white elephant BSNL.
So, the next time you read about how visionary this scheme is, remember that it is your tax money which is being wasted.
Ive written a bit on Telecom Markets in my post on Net Neutrality. Do check it out.http://notyetlokayata.blogspot.in/2015/04/on-net-neutrality-fracas.html
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Sunday 26 July 2015

Panditji's China Policy -1

Panditji's China policy can be summarized as 1 ounce of Delusion, 1 ounce of Misinformation and 2 ounces of stupidity. Panditji repeatedly sacrificed India's national interest in trying to take into account 'larger considerations' i.e. his 2 favorite bogeys - World Peace and The need for a continued Sino-Indian friendship.

 Let me elaborate a bit.
As Arun Shourie ji has shown in his  book- 'Self-Deception; India's China Policies - Origins, Premises, Lessons' , India's China Policy during Panditji's rule had a 2 step response to any Chinese Aggression.
1. Suppress Information
2. Deny

The phenomenon of our leaders(including the present PM Narendra Modi) repeatedly misleading the nation into reading more into statements and Joint Declarations than is warranted isnt new. It has rather ancient roots(I will elaborate on that some other day). In contemporary times, it started with Panditji.

Yes, you guessed it right- Tibet. Most of you may have read Sardar Patel's prophetic letter to Panditji warning him about the imperialistic designs of the Chinese. If not, do read it here- http://www.friendsoftibet.org/main/sardar.html

While the Chinese were screaming that they will 'Liberate Tibet', Pandiji in his delusion thought that no such thing will happen as it would be counterproductive for the Chinese themselves given the precarious position of their UNSC seat. He was deluded enough to think that the Chinese were afraid that the world would get a bad impression of them !!

When they did take over Tibet, Panditji started advocating meek acceptance. That didnt shock me. What shocked me were the reasons he gave for doing so-

1. ' In the long term view, India and China are two of the biggest countries in Asia bordering on each other and both with certain expansive tendencies, because of their vitality ' . Do notice how he paints India as having expansive tendencies to justify not responding to China's aggression even though India had born the brunt of aggression by outsiders for over a millennia by then.

2. ' We cannot save Tibet, as we should have liked to do, and our very atempts to save it might well bring greater trouble to it. It would be unfair to Tibet for us to bring this trouble upon her without having the capacity to help her effectively. It may be  possible, however, that we might help Tibet to retain a large measure of her autonomy. That would be good for Tibet and good for India. As far as I can see, this can only be done on the diplomatic level and by avoidance of making the present tension between India and China worse. '

Notice how Panditji uses 'as we should have liked to do'. This should be read in the context of the fact that he had kept the Tibetan Delegation in Delhi asking for his support waiting for months and when he did meet them, refused to do anything except help them diplomatically. Panditji still harbors the delusion that China would grant Tibet a large measure of autonomy. He then talks about diplomatic solutions. This should be read in the context that immediately after writing this , Panditji declares
 'I think that in no event should we sponsor's Tibet's appeal. I would think that it would be a good thing if the appeal is not heard in the Security Council or the General assembly. ......

Tibet I think is still grateful for the help Panditji gave 'diplomatically'!!

Note to readers- I have heavily drawn from Arun Shourie ji's book for this post.
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