Stance on Economic Liberalization

What is the stance of Lok Satta on economic liberalization, privatization, globalization, and World Bank policies?

If an advice is useful to the people at large, it is the policy of Lok Satta to follow it irrespective of where it comes from and discard it if it affects the people adversely.

Our experience in the past years has shown that public sector does not mean people’s sector, but is the private domain of a few big people. The government seems to work only for these big shots and as a result many of our industries in the public sector perform below par.

When the State is the only player it becomes a monopoly. We know from experience how monopoly burdens the consumer. One well-known example used to be the telecom sector. So if there is genuine competition in the market, products and services automatically improve and at the end of the day it is the consumer who emerges winner. If this coincides with the recommendations of World Bank, so be it.

But if someone says it would do us good if we privatize education and health, we should turn down the advice even if it comes from The One Above.

So it does not matter who says it. We should bank on our own good sense to determine what is good for the country. The decisions taken should not compromise our sense of self-respect.