Yes, Dear Leader: Amit pulls a Mao

At first I thought the Bastiat Prize meal was to be dinner with rich bastards. Sitting among i-bankers and VCs, I prepped a day-job story to suit the audience — ‘I make petroleum from the bones of the poor.’

But I was wrong, this wasn’t Enron. I was sitting amidst a group of libertarian insurgents, a lonely, econ-geeky, earnest, small-government contingent made homeless by both major political parties. What appeal does it hold for a politician to tell him he must reduce the size of his potential career? That the best governors are citizen-politicians, those with day jobs, who do not specialize in fundraising, waste and graft?

Apocryphal New India stories were passed around, like the one of the call center whose bathroom drains were constantly getting clogged by used condoms. The keynote speaker, like all the others, was lucid and succinct. Brevity is a virtue among lib speakers as among their politicians. Libs are Zen, not maximalists; Amit’s dislike of Rushdie and Bhansali, both of whom I adore, suddenly made sense.

The politics of prize voting reminded me of other competitions from the Booker to Miss Universe. Since the keynote was about New India, and just one writer on that topic had won to date, I was pretty sure that Amit would take home the crystal candlestick (though if only the trophy had been a buggy whip, the point would’ve been more obvious). Some of the other nominees were already famous, and their career trajectories would not be altered by winning this prize.

I’d given the other nominees’ essays a quick skim, and Amit’s were more cleanly structured. And in the leadup to the prize, the speaker let slip that one essay was ‘more Bastiat than Bastiat’ — clearly referring to ‘The Devil’s Compassion,’ Amit’s modest proposal. So the winner surprised me not a bit. But now that an Indian’s won, the judges will likely spread the love around in future years.

Libertarianism is, of course, a much more urgent cause in India. In the U.S., its basic philosophy is already in the DNA of the nation, the Constitution, under enumerated federal powers and a devolution of the remainder to the locals. Theoretically, at least, it’s an opt-in system, not an opt-out. But government interference is a daily grind for Indian business.

Varma brought his own cheering section, the desi mafia, as follows.

Petra Sonderegger and Reuben Abraham:

Yazad Jal:

Prashant Kothari and his faux Indic tie:

Policy Network thinktankers, the prize sponsors:

Amit signs away his firstborn child to Ian Vásquez, Cato:

Tom Palmer, Cato:

Here’s Amit’s writeup, and: Gaurav Sabnis, Sepia Mutiny, Indian Economy, Ãœber Desi, Arzan Wadia, Sonia Faleiro, Middle Stage.

Related posts: Varma wins Bastiat, Kidrobot, and other scary tales (updated), A man, a plan, a candlestick: Varma, 1 across: Bookstore chain