Instead of telling people that without modern roads, airports, ports and power supply India will remain a poor country forever, they bewail poverty as if it were something god gave India as a special gift. They do not explain that the only reason why a country as rich as India is mired in poverty is because of bad economic policies and a shameful absence of real investment in schools, healthcare and sanitation.

When election time comes round and they have failed yet again to deliver on ‘bijli, pani, sadak’ they offer up more grandiose and unworkable ‘poverty alleviation’ schemes, and when that doesn’t work, we go back to that old, destructive formula of temple and mosque, gods and prophets.

As I drive along excellent roads on this beautiful island and notice that there is not a single open drain or heap of rotting garbage I think what India could be like if we ever get our priorities right.