The author is Consulting Editor, The Economic Times

The rupee has taken a battering. So has the capital market. Investment has dropped by 4% of GDP. Even if one accepts the questionable proposition that these segments need not be catered to with the lens of inclusive growth, growth affects all India’s citizens.We have had an 80-page 3-year report card on UPA-II’s performance. It brags about India’s growth of “about 7%” in 2011-12. 7% (6.9% to be precise) is for the full year. Disaggregated, quarterwise trend is more like 6% now, a far cry from 9% and aspiration for double-digit levels. Instead of 9% growth and 6% inflation, we have settled down at 6% growth and 9% inflation and Greeks are to blame.Why does the report have 80 pages? No, it isn’t because there are 79 ministers and each deserved a page, with an extra page for PM/PMO, since we now know PM is not to be confused with PMO. It is probably because 080 is universally identified as an emergency number, and let’s be clear, there is an emergency. This doesn’t concern fiscal and current account deficits that rating agencies talk about, though those are important. It is more about governance-cum-trust deficits, now given the euphemism of an implementation deficit.Nor is it only about pursuit of an inclusive agenda. Had that been the case, governance under UPAII wouldn’t have been perceptibly worse than under UPA-I. Allies aren’t the problem either. In coalition politics, managing allies (and opposition) is part of the governance task. Consider the following, all symptomatic of the malaise.At stroke of the midnight hour, on December 9, 2009, Telengana was announced, with the consequent aftermath. Yet again, at midnight in June 2011, there was an ill-advised swoop on Baba Ramdev. 2G, CWG and other assorted scams notwithstanding, the country was told all losses were notional and “zero” was reinvented. Planning Commission unnecessarily became party to a suit before Supreme Court and attracted ridicule about the poverty line.Censorship struck with a vengeance, and not just on social networking sites. A minister challenged a Constitutional organ to hang him. Another minister threatened President’s rule in UP if Congress was not voted to power. Bureaucrats take decisions, for better or worse, and part of ministerial function is to insulate bureaucrats from after-shocks. That insulation broke down and no bureaucrat takes a decision any longer, rot beginning with PMO.Cabinet doesn’t function and 183 EGoMs don’t solve the problem. There is an attempt to ram NCTC down the throats of state governments. The country is told about Sam Pitroda ’s caste. Contrary to what the report card says, we haven’t exactly covered ourselves with glory in dealing with immediate neighbours.I fail to see what allies or Greece have to do with any of this. In remarks on the report card, PM said there was a cyclical element in life and economies. While that’s true, cycles are often superimposed on asecular trend. As these examples illustrate, downward spiral under UPA-II is incontestable. No one seems to know who represents the government anymore and what the government does. The government hasn’t withered away, as Marx anticipated. It is dithering away and moving from one crisis to another, often of its own making.Now that short-term myopia over some state elections (read UP) are over, short-term myopia over President and vice-president have taken over. We will then move on to another round of state elections, assuming continued uncertainty and speculation over a Cabinet reshuffle and PM is out of the way. In such dire straits, humour is often a balm. That too is now under government scrutiny.Perception about time is relative. Three years of UPA-II have passed, but they have seemed to be inordinately long. This isn’t about Congress, or whoever forms the government in Delhi. It is more about there being some government in Delhi and the sooner elections are held the better it will be for the country. Chief Economic Adviser implicitly suggested this in the US. In the Indian political system, electoral cycles are part of life. But between elections, one expects a government that governs.The fact that we have accomplished 6.9% despite a missing government in Delhi is testimony to how focus has shifted to states and to India’s entrepreneurial talent. Hence, the counterfactual, if there was actually a government in Delhi, despite global downturn and Greece, we would have done much better.And so that we have the counterfactual right, this isn’t about the filthy rich. 6% means 9 million new jobs a year. 9% means 12 million. The 3 million who missed jobs and India deserve better.