Fine. If Christians can believe Jesus was the son of god and Muslims can believe that their Prophet had long conversations with god then why should Hindus not believe that Ram built a bridge to Lanka in a time before recorded history? Faith is faith and there is little anyone can do to persuade the average human that it’s time to start asking some questions.

What worries me is when an India that is on the verge of modernity and an economic boom should be more worried about Ram’s setu than it is about real infrastructure problems. Did nobody notice that the finance minister told a parliamentary committee that India needed to up its investment in infrastructure from the 4.6 per cent it is today to eight per cent in the next five years? Without this the economy cannot grow at nine per cent a year. The finance minister said, “The most visible indicators of overstretched infrastructure are India’s congested highways, airports and ports.”

He then provided the committee with these figures. Infrastructure will need an investment of Rs 1,450,000 crore during the Eleventh Plan. The power sector needs Rs 616,500 crore, railways Rs 300,000 crore, highways Rs 220,000 crore, civil aviation Rs 40,000 crore, and ports Rs 50,000 crore in the next five years. He admitted that the public sector could not pay for all this and private investment will be necessary.

It should worry us that the enormity of our infrastructure problem does not worry our politicians and that they consider a mythical bridge more important. But there is a sad little reason for this and the reason is that despite the dramatic economic changes we have seen as a result of economic reform, we do not have a single political leader who dares explain to ordinary Indians the importance of what has happened. It is not just Marxist politicians who believe in economic reform by stealth; it is all our politicians.

... contd.