Editorial
Basant fell flat this year, and the culprit was predictable: government overreach strangled what should have been a spontaneous celebration. The festival failed not because people lost interest but because excessive regulation destroyed the supply chain while simultaneously driving prices beyond what ordinary citizens could afford. Kites disappeared from the markets, not because manufacturers stopped producing them or buyers stopped wanting them but because bureaucratic controls created artificial scarcity. The string called (dor) became equally scarce. What remained available carried price tags that only the wealthy could consider, transforming a people’s festival into an elite’s privilege.
This was administrative failure in its purest form. When authorities decide to micromanage traditional celebrations through permits, restrictions, and regulatory hoops, they invariably kill the very thing they claim to be facilitating. The demand existed, enthusiasm was there, families wanted to gather on rooftops and children wanted to fly kites as their parents and grandparents had done. But the state inserted itself between desire and fulfillment, between tradition and practice.
The lesson here extends beyond one festival. Every time government creates excessive regulation around economic activity or cultural practice, it generates scarcity, inflates prices, and excludes common people from participation. Basant became a case study in how not to govern. Instead of establishing basic safety guidelines and allowing the market to supply demand naturally, bureaucrats imposed controls that choked supply at its source. Manufacturers faced uncertainty about whether production would even be legal, retailers couldn’t stock inventory they might be prohibited from selling, and consumers faced empty shops or extortionate prices.
The failure was entirely avoidable. Had authorities simply stepped back after setting minimal safety standards, Basant would have flourished organically as it always had. Instead they proved once again that government intervention, however well-intentioned, typically achieves the opposite of its stated goals. They regulated Basant into irrelevance.
