The only people who have done well are the politicians. Amazingly well. They own vast properties, their children go to fine universities in foreign lands, their cars are bigger than the cars of businessmen (though mysteriously they never own them) and they rarely need to fly commercial any more. If someone counted how many private planes and helicopters were used in the Uttar Pradesh election, it could make an interesting document of economic change.

Nobody paid for them personally, you will hear, it was the party. To which we should ask, where are the parties are getting so much money from these days? Frankly, though, corruption is now endemic in the Indian body politic. It cannot be eradicated. The only solution is for us to teach our politicians to make money out of doing some good for the country instead of making it out of bad things like trying to turn the Taj Mahal into a shopping mall, as Mayawati tried to do when she was chief minister last time.

From all accounts she is now older and wiser and there is no point in spoiling her magnificent victory by dredging up bad memories, so in a spirit of goodwill I offer some humble suggestions on how Uttar Pradesh can be transformed within the next five years.

As the state that has the Taj Mahal and Varanasi, the new government should consider the economic possibilities of tourism. The potential is enormous if you consider that more foreign tourists visit the Taj than any other Indian monument, and Varanasi is increasingly the ancient Hindu city every visitor wants to see.

... contd.