India's ban mania

India's ban mania

Cattle market prohibition illustrates how we suffer from too many restrictions.
It is commonplace to say that India suffers from poor governance.
Less commonplace is to query why this should be the case. There can be worse answers than pointing at how too many laws imposed by a leviathan state are too heavy a burden on people. Forcing people to live at the margins of the law is bad for governance. One, it promotes general disrespect for the law. Two, ambiguously worded laws and red tape make it easier for authorities to harass people, incentivising corruption. Three, heavy-handed laws promote the growth of vigilantes and therefore general lawlessness in society.
When it comes to laws and regulations there can certainly be too much of a good thing; this was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's insight earlier on when he raised the slogan of “minimum government, maximum governance“. Unfortunately, this is not a premise that has been realised during the years NDA has been in office ¬ although, to be fair, opposition-ruled states or even courts have been as quick to breach this principle as BJP has (witness draconian prohibition laws introduced by the Bihar government, or the Supreme Court ban on liquor within 500 metres of highways).
We can take the situation of far mers as an illustrative example. There is no political party that doesn't cry itself hoarse about the plight of far mers, or shout from the rooftops what it is doing for their benefit. Yet, in per haps only a step short of Soviet-style collectivisation, India places severe restrictions on farmers trading in what they produce or own. Thus, farmers can only sell their produce at licensed markets in most states, which allows middlemen to run away with most agricultural profits.
If this quixotic rule originated from the left of the ideological spectrum, now the right has come up with its own quixotic rule to match: a ban on cattle markets where animals might be sold for slaughter. To circumvent this being a state matter the ban has been implemented through the backdoor by speciously invoking a central law, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Among other economic costs, the new rules mean that a large part of India's $13 billion-a-year leather industry could migrate to Pakistan and Bangladesh. India has, after all, always suffered from a surfeit of ideology and a lack of pragmatism ¬ even if this gives rise to poor governance and underdevelopment.