Wishful Bharat is not Viksit Bharat

Mr Jaishankar and Mr Vaishnaw can legitimately be proud of the progress we have made in the country since liberalisation in 1991. It was the dawn of economic freedom. There were setbacks... Yet, successive governments stood on the shoulders of the previous government(s) and added more building blocks. No government started on a slate that was full of rubbish, wiped it clean, and started writing - as the Modi government would like us to believe

MR S JAISHANKAR, the Minister of External Affairs, and Mr Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, are urbane, well-educated and soft-spoken. Mr Jaishankar had a distinguished career in the foreign service where he was considered a liberal. MrVaishnawis also Minister of Railways and Minister of Information and Broadcasting. He was in the civil service, resigned, joined the private sector, started his own business, and returned as a member of Parliament.

I know that Mr Jaishankar has an interest in economics. Mr Vaishnaw studied economics as a graduate of the Wharton Business School. Both are acquainted with the current state of the Indian economy and they held forth on the subject in a recent conclave held by a television channel, NDTV.

Terror of numbers Numbers have a way of befuddling the best minds. First, Mr Jaishankar's proud take on the size of the economy: "today, we are a $4 trillion economy with a trade of $800 billion...if you look at Investments of foreigners in India...". The reality is far different. We are not yet a $4 trillion economy.