It wasn’t long ago that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the run-up to the UP elections, told an excited gathering at Fatehpur, “If there is a ‘kabaristan’ (graveyard), there should be a ‘shmashaan’ (cremation ground), too. If there is electricity during Ramadan, there should electricity during Diwali too.

There should be no discrimination.” These words were the first signal that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government wanted to end the leverage of the taxpayer’s money for religion-focused vote-bank politics. In many ways, this was also a ...