THAT'S MY TAX MONEY

For some reason, we in India don't have a psychology of thinking the money spent by the govrnement/ bureaucrats/ministers as our money. Its government's money and government has unlimited amount of money and its ok for them to waste it. And that's why we never bother to stop and get angry at what our tax money is used for. That's right, if you work in India and pay taxes every March, you are paying for the fancy cars, air travels, parties and any such expenditure fancied by the politicians/bureaucrats. Your hard earned money. The money for which you worked the entire year.

Why am I talking about this, all of sudden? I just finished reading this editorial by Vir Sanghavi (one of my favorite columnist). The issue in the article is Kashmir. I have known for years that Kashmir enjoys a speical state status (Article 370) but have never stopped to think what it means till now. Here is what that means, in terms of your money:

Under Article 370 of our Constitution, with the exception of defence, foreign policy, and communication, no law enacted by parliament has any legitimacy in Kashmir unless the state government gives its consent. The state is the only one in India to have its own Constitution and the President of India cannot issue directions to the state government in exercise of the executive power of the Union as he can in every other state. Kashmiri are Indian citizens but Indians are not necessarily Kashmiri citizens. We cannot vote for elections to their assembly or own any property in Kashmir.

Then, there is the money. Bihar gets per capita central assistance of Rs 876 per year. Kashmir gets over ten times more: Rs 9,754 per year. While in Bihar and other states, this assistance is mainly in the forms of loans to the state, in Kashmir 90 per cent is an outright grant. Kashmir’s entire Five Year Plan expenditure is met by the Indian taxpayer. In addition, New Delhi keeps throwing more and more money at the state: in 2004, the Prime Minister gave Kashmir another $5 billion for development. (Its DOLLAR 5 billion and not Rupees. Imagine how much they have to increase the taxes or cut down on something more essential (parties and such expenditures are never cut down and you know that) to match that kind of expenditure.)

...

The other cost of Kashmir is military. Many terrorist acts, from the hijacking of IC 814 to the attack on parliament have Kashmir links. Our response to the parliament attack was Operation Parakram, which cost, in ten months, Rs 6,500 crore and 800 army lives? (Kargil cost us 474 lives.) Each day, our troops and paramilitary forces are subjected to terrorists's attacks, stress, and ridicule.

And all this for what? To be criticized by the world, to be preached human rights by Pakistan, and worst of all: to be condemened by Kashmiris themselves? I would rather have my tax money (though I don't pay taxes to Government of India anymore but figuratively speaking) invested in Bihar even though I know that major part of that will go to the pockets of corrupt ministers and bureaucrats but at least we won't be condemened for that.

P.S.: I hate paying taxes. Not because I have to give away my money but the way government uses it. In US, major part of my tax money is going to US defense to bully rest of the world or to social security to pay the homeless get their drugs. The worst part is that I don't even have a right to vote here even though I have duty of paying taxes. How is that fair? At least I should have a say in the way they use my hard earned money. And trust me, I work really hard for that.