Why India is constantly bracketed with China as an emerging power is another puzzle. China is at least a generation or two ahead of us. The cutting edge infrastructure — massive airports, an endless string of multi-level flyovers, rows of skyscrapers in Shanghai — are in your face reminders that we have a lot of catching up to do. A senior Indian diplomat describes China as a nation on steroids. The statistics speak for themselves. China’s per capita GDP is $2000 India’s $800; China’s FDI is $69.47 billion, India’s $16 billion.

One reason why China has marched so far ahead is the extraordinary ability of the Chinese to keep reshaping their landscape, and re-inventing their political system, without any major resistance or even debate. For instance, Beijing is being readied for the Olympics and the city has undergone a total transformation. Hundreds of old buildings knocked down, over 200 factories relocated, some major industrial units closed down and 50,000 polluting taxis and 3000 buses are to taken off the roads. In comparison, for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, we are still debating whether a hundred trees can be cut down along the Mathura road to make way for a high speed corridor.

Though the government in China is still run by the all pervasive Communist Party; there is nothing even vaguely akin to our home spun Marxists. In fact, the biggest fan of this authoritarian style of governance where economic discrepancies abound — the GDP in Pudong is $15,000 compared to the country’s average of $2000 — and economic progress rather than social justice or environmental concern is the all important goal, is none other than the BJP’s Narendra Modi.