After the well deserved thrashing by the BJP in UP for sins committed a decade earlier, the talk was about how economic reforms would be delayed again. I demurred – mostly because there is a strong logical, and empirical basis, for arguing that political uncertainty actually helps accelerate social and economic reforms. Why? When you ain’t got nothing to lose, go for broke.

Yashwant Sinha, the quiet and unfairly maligned reformer, has been pushing the envelope since the disastrous Pokharan budget of June 1998. (Political uncertainty was high then, what with nuclear status and all that patriotic jazz). He was the first to recognize the problem of small savings when he decreased the subsidy to the rich savers (the top 10 percent of the population saves more than ?? percent of all savings) by a miniscule half a percent. As long suspected, the rich did not protest in the streets because their ransom money was being reduced. That long road has now...

My optimism about the beginning of the end of second generation reforms is based on the following set of assumptions/facts: First, that privatization is a reality, and the train has left the station, and not in reverse gear. If you do not believe this, then you should join the Congress party which still believes that the private sector is public property.