This is nonsense. The pogroms and riots of the past are a thing of the past because television has made it impossible for a Narendra Modi to get away with what he did in Gujarat. If there had been 24-hour news channels in 1984, it would have been impossible for a Congress government to allow the massacre of more than 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi in two days.

Unfortunately, what has not changed is the politics of the past. Our political leaders continue to believe that the way to rule India is by dividing Hindu from Muslim, Dalit from Brahmin, and other backward castes from everyone else. The election campaign in Uttar Pradesh offers sad evidence of how little has changed, and it must change if India wants to overcome its terrible handicaps of poverty and illiteracy.

If anything holds India back it is our inability to rid ourselves of this double curse. That is the war we need to win and we will only win it if we are spared Sachar Committee type reports that distract us from real issues by communalising policy in the name of secularism.