As always I woke early on Independence Day to hear the Prime Minister speak. I listened carefully as he reiterated that the priorities of his government in the past four years, its ‘seven sutras’, had been agriculture, water, education, healthcare, employment, urban renewal and infrastructure. I wondered if he noticed that this could be a list of his biggest failures. If his government had succeeded in making ‘common minimum’ improvements in the areas he listed, India would not look as bad as it does when cruel people compare us to China. What more proof of difference is needed than the fit of national hysteria when we won our first gold medal at the Olympics while China makes no fuss about winning the most gold medals at the games. Personally, I found the hysterics over Abhinav Bindra’s medal deeply shaming. Why do we behave in this appalling way? Because we remain a Third World third-rate country and the main reason is the failure of successive Indian governments to deliver on the Prime Minister’s seven sutras.

The day before his speech I drove down the national highway that goes from Mumbai to Goa. I suggest that the Prime Minister or one of his trusted aides drive down one of our national highways as a reality check on the seven sutras. The ‘national highway’ to Panjim was so bad that there were moments when my car seemed to be climbing in and out of shallow craters. These were mega-mega holes, hence my hesitation to use the word pothole. This was a small problem compared to the jam of articulated lorries that I got stuck in for more than an hour. The lorries were the only 21st century thing on this highway and they were forced to move like bullock carts because the road was so hopelessly inadequate.

... contd.