My Paid Protectors
Violent conduct on the part of policemen is a common malice. However the question to be asked is, ‘Why do I pay these people to beat me up?’
As the arms of the law, policemen are the beneficiaries of our taxes. The point is that they should protect us. However the statist nature of the modern nation means that policemen are accountable only to politicians and legislators.
In Delhi for example, with the recent commonwealth games, large parts of the city seemed to be under emergency rule. A number of citizens during this time were caught at the wrong end of a policeman’s short temper. Meanwhile politicians demanded patriotism from the same harassed citizens in the name of the commonwealth games. And so one must ask: is patriotism a feeling of envy we induce in other nations by hosting the commonwealth games, or a feeling of pride in a nation that protects us and serves all the basic functions of nation state.
Protection of the citizen is the basic function of the state. When the force meant to protect becomes a suppressive force in the hands of the government, on a daily basis, patriotism can seem to be a rather comical expectation
Rakesh Wadhwa. Ever since, I was a school boy, I knew India was on the wrong path. Socialism was just not what we needed to get ahead. Government controlled our travel; government controlled our ability to buy and sell; and government controlled our freedom to move our money. My life has focused on the inherent rights people have. When I was in college, I never understood, what the governments meant by their "socialistic attitude". If people are free to buy, sell and move their capital themselves without any restrictions by state, then the welfare of people is inevitable & hence the countries they live in will become wealthy. The government has no right whatsoever, to point a finger at me or my business. I am not a revolutionary. I just want to light up my cigarette and not get nagged about it. I believe in non-interfering attitude to attain more. 
The Bastiat Award is a journalism award, given annually by the International Policy Network, London. Bastiat Prize entries are judged on intellectual content, the persuasiveness of the language used and the type of publication in which they appear. Rakesh Wadhwa won the 3rd prize (a cash award of $1,000 and a candlestick), in 2006.
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