Well done, Sonia Gandhi. Not words you would expect to read in this column and not words I expected ever to write. I have never hesitated to admit that the idea of an Italian prime minister of India was for me a matter of deep embarrassment and I opposed it from the moment Sonia took her first, faltering steps in Indian politics. Then she wisely refused to accept the job, choosing instead to become the eminence grise of her hand-picked prime minister’s government, and my objections to her presence in Indian politics weakened. She did win an election and who can argue with the box office.

My next problem with Mrs. G was that I found myself in conflict with her grandiose schemes to remove poverty. They were in my view no different to similar schemes that had failed in the past. Her most significant contribution to this government has been the employment guarantee scheme, which, at huge expense, will serve mostly to keep millions of poor people in poverty indefinitely. I have met families who live on a hundred days of work a year and they live in poverty so dire it hurts to describe it. If the scheme taught them a skill it would empower them. In its present form it works as charity.

Having said this, let me say that last week when I heard Sonia Gandhi telling her Marxist ex-best friends that they were enemies of progress, I was impressed. I caught the speech on television and watched with growing admiration as she ticked Commissar Karat and his comrades off in clear, unambiguous words. Those who oppose the nuclear deal, she said, are not just enemies of the Congress, but enemies of development, because there can be no development without energy. India needs energy if there is to be development.

... contd.