Detaching morality from economic policy

Is the Adani imbroglio an episodic, one-off incident-or does it reflect a major systemic lacuna in our conception of development and democracy? Mahatma Gandhi had said the national objective must be "to wipe every tear from every eye" and earlier answered a question about his "dream for India" by saying he would "work for an India in which the poorest shall feel it is their country" in the making of which it is their voice that shall prevail.

- MANI SHANKAR AIYAR

It was this vision that provided the crucial ethical dimension to the national goal of securing development through democracy-for, clearly, the voice of the most disadvantaged would count only in a democratic polity.

After much cogitation and debate, this approach of prioritising the uplift of the poor, as distinct from incentivising the rich to become richer, led to the enunciation of a "socialistic pattern of society" as the objective of equitable democratic development. This cumbersome expression was often reduced to the single word "socialism".

This form of "socialism" was later incorporated in the Preamble to our Constitution. Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna has underlined that "the way we understand socialism in India is very different from the way other academics might understand [it].