Three, NREGA. This columnist has repeatedly argued in these columns that the NREGA is a very worthwhile effort. By giving work and a wage to our poor rather than a dole, we treat them with dignity. By attempting (even if only with partial success) to build roads, reservoirs and schools, we create useful social capital. The criticism that the programme is wasteful often advanced by fiscal fundamentalists has no moral basis at all in a country where the middle and upper classes get huge subsidies for their LPG and diesel consumption.

On NREGA, the two points I would make are that firstly we should build on it and secondly we should leverage the Right to Information Act to engage civil society to improve the outcomes and to reduce waste and corruption. Once the current global recession ends and we are back to a 9 to 10 per cent GDP growth, you are likely to automatically reap a 20 per cent growth in government revenues. At that stage, you may consider going in for an urban version of NREGA in our small towns and big cities. Just a thought.

That’s it sir. I am not asking for tax sops for my particular industry or some tinkering with reservation lists to help my neighbour. Three items only, all big picture, items unlikely to excite the stock market in the short term or to get TV channels particularly interested in. Even if you don’t succeed fully, but only partially, in the history of our country you will enter a select pantheon: one can think of Sher Shah, Raja Raja Chola, Akbar, Krishnadeva, Shivaji Ranjit Singh and Nehru, and possibly Curzon — no one else comes to mind. This is one objective worth fighting for, I submit — not because you seek glory, but because you pursue the dharma of a just, wise and sagacious ruler.

... contd.