Modi - the candidate for PM and Modi - the PM, are two entirely different beings. In numerous election rallies, candidate Modi thundered that “government has no business to be in business” and promised to reduce government interference in the market; as the PM, he did precisely the opposite. Here’s a small example.

Around 1951, you could count the number of central government Public Sector Units (PSUs) on the fingers of one hand: There were five. Twenty-five years later by 1976, that number had ballooned to 155. By 1984, there were 220. The central government added 70 PSUs in the following 30 years – for grand total of 290 by 2014. That’s a rate of increase was a little over two per year.

With Modi as the prime minister – and the de facto autocrat of India – the rate of increase of PSUs shot up to over 12 per year. In the four years 2014 to 2018, about 50 additional PSUs were added. Modi promised one thing – “government has no business to be in business” – and delivered precisely the opposite.

It appears that to PM Modi, every problem has precisely one answer: More government, more bureaucracy, more taxes, more cesses and transfers, and more public spending. Candidate Modi had promised “minimum government, maximum governance.” It was a great line but in retrospect totally bogus. It’s all wag and no dog.