When this government came to power the one thing I liked about its Common Minimum Programme was the promise of reforms with a ‘‘human face’’. As someone who believes that building our inadequate social infrastructure is as important as building roads and power stations I was delighted that we finally had a government that seemed to understand this. Then there was the Congress party’s slogan reiterating its commitment to the ‘‘common man’’—‘Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath’—and my (mistaken) belief that having returned to power after 10 restless years on the opposition benches, it would surely not lie to the ‘‘aam aadmi’’.

There was also the hope that since we had a Prime Minister who was an economist he understood the reasons why so many Indians continue to live in hideous poverty. He has often drawn attention to the neglect of social infrastructure as an important reason. This is why I am disappointed that half way into this government’s term we see no sign of improvements in education, healthcare, public hygiene or sanitation.

These problems are as important as national security because as long as millions of Indians continue to subsist in semi-human conditions we remain as vulnerable as a country if we did not have the army to protect our borders. A recent article in The Herald Tribune by Ifzal Ali, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank, came as a reminder of how grim the situation is. ‘‘Almost half of all Indian children below the age of five are underweight. Infant and child mortality rates are higher than in Bangladesh and Nepal. More surprisingly, India’s level of child malnutrition is higher than that of sub-Saharan Africa.’’

... contd.