Experienced observers will keep an open mind for another ending though — a long and tortuous period that sees some regression followed by some negotiated progress that incrementally becomes rational policy. That’s been the story of some of the most major reforms. Think VAT, switching private telecom companies from licence fees to a revenue sharing model, insurance reform, and airport privatisation. Disinvestment was thought to have crossed the political-agitationist hump till this government made a mountain out of the NDA’s procedural molehill. But chances are disinvestment will be back on the policy table once the only group that wants to seriously block it — the Left — matters less in Delhi. In any case, in states, including in Bengal, disinvestment is not a dirty word. SEZs and the larger issue of land for industry are also caught in political-agitationist controversies. But it is not overly optimistic to suggest that the system will grind out a compromise, and that before a national formula is found, states will work towards individual solutions.

Retail reform and expansion may follow the same route.

Indeed, the logic of low consumer prices, better returns for commodity producers and huge skilled and semi-skilled employment is so strong that those attacking shops and banning businesses now are probably only delaying the inevitable. Of course, delays extract costs. But they also allow dissent, whether informed or motivated or merely fashionable, to find expression. We are not and never should be, China. There’s more drama in the retail story and a probable happy ending.