NEW DELHI — The Planning Commission of India is like those old men who are no longer harmful but are reviled because they once were. In their glory years, their ideas and deeds, couched in exalted convictions, destroyed lives.

The commission, in its final days now, was officially a think tank embedded in the government with the honorable mandate to reimagine India’s economic future. But culturally it was a lesson six decades in the telling that there is much to fear in the idealism of the elite. Created in 1950, it was once the heartbeat of India’s planned economy, when a small cabal in Delhi allocated funds, decided what factories should produce and how much, and what sort of industries — in fact, what sort of anything — was good for the nation. Its powers have diminished over the years, and its relevance has been questioned.

On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day address: “Sometimes it costs more to repair an old house, but it gives us no satisfaction. We have a feeling that it would be better to construct a new house altogether. Therefore, within a short period, we will replace the Planning Commission with a new institution.”

Mr. Modi displayed a degree of respect for the commission, but economic analysts rejoiced, saying that an ancient beast created during India’s experiment with socialism had finally been slain. Amusing then that the seeds of the commission were sown by some of India’s leading capitalists.