Ever since Sonia Gandhi set up her National Advisory Council (NAC) I have opposed it as a dangerously meddlesome extra-constitutional body. No country can be led by two prime ministers, no government can be led by two cabinets and it is India's bad luck that we have had both. In my ever humble opinion this is the reason why the Indian economy has gone from boom to bust in recent years. The economy is now growing at less than 5 per cent and for this I blame the NAC and its relentless efforts to impose the stamp of its leftist worldview on policy. If proof were needed, it came last week in the interviews that Aruna Roy gave after she resigned from the NAC. Ms Roy was possibly the most influential of the jholawala types that Sonia appointed as her advisors, which makes what she says a reflection of what our de facto prime minister thinks.

Let me put before you here a small sample of her economic worldview. In an interview to Mint, Ms Roy said, "...policy is strongly influenced by the hands of rich people whose clear targets are profit and money, in which social welfare and even the concern for others plays a very small role. So all these CSRs (corporate social responsibility obligations) are not really looking at raising the levels of living of the people."

Analyse this statement carefully and you will detect not just contempt for the private sector (which was directly responsible for the economic boom) but also the romantic fantasy that officials care more for the poor. What Ms Roy (and her ex-boss) appears not to have noticed is that the 300 million Indians who now constitute the Indian middle class are a direct product of the booming economy that was created by Indian corporations.

... contd.

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