The emotions this generates at the other, much more populous end of the spectrum, is envy. And that is what the Prime Minister is worried about. He has too much intellect and integrity to either lose it so completely or to make a totally cynical about-turn. As shown by The Indian Express Opinion Editor Saubhik Chakrabarti’s fascinating report today on the themes of the 529 speeches delivered by the Prime Minister in his three years, his belief that economic freedom unleashes enterprise which creates wealth and jobs and ultimate trickle-down, is all there. But he has also said often that the poor in India are far too many and poverty too deep and complex, to be left to market forces. He sees a role of the state there. Three years in the saddle, could it be, could it just be that he is getting so frustrated by his inability to improve the delivery processes of India’s governance and the state’s abject failure in intermediating that trickle-down, that he is now speaking out just in exasperation?

Nobody, definitely not the Prime Minister, doubts that growth is the best news India has had in decades and its benefits are reaching to most sections of our society though in a far from perfectly equitable manner. Our tax collections are at record levels. For the first time in our history, budgeted tax targets are being revised upwards and get surpassed consistently. The Central and the state governments are richer than ever before. It is just that partly because of our inability to cut through a politico-bureaucratic Maginot line and partly because of coalition deal-making, the ability of the state to spend this money has not improved any more than fractionally. And that, too, only in better-governed states.

... contd.