And then it was claimed that growth then was unsustainable, leading to fiscal deficits, fixed in the ’90s. Yes, the combined fiscal deficit was 9.4 per cent of GDP in 1990/ 91, but it’s over 10 per cent now. India, we are told, had to sell gold in 1990-91 because it had splurged. But that was a very unusual year. For one, the Janata Dal government of 1990 was explicitly against growth. The Eighth Plan Approach Paper they brought out was the only one not to have a growth target. With the level of short-term debt we have today, wouldn’t we have a crisis of confidence too if the PM’s closest economic advisers, instead of talking growth, PPPs and convertibility, constantly kept on saying that that was not an objective of policy and deriding Indian achievements? It is time to set the record straight so that the future sights are clearer. After all, those ideas have resonance; growth today depends on the same ideas. Fixing how we view history is important.

The writer, a former Union minister, is chairman, Institute of Rural Management, Anand

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