Blurb: In the Great Indian Poverty Debate, a variety of estimates are thrown around to confuse everyone. Mr Sibal seems to have taken a leaf out of this book when he decided to say Raja’s scam cost nothing

The 2G scam story is going the poverty way. Or going the way of the Chinese yuan. Let me explain the connection. For quite some time now, the policy among the povertywallahs is to obfuscate the issue. Throw in as many numbers of poverty as possible so even the authors will be confused, never mind the public. At last count, there are three official estimates of poverty in India ranging from a low of 21 to a high of 37 percent for 2004/5. In addition, there are two estimates from the sanctorum of the National Advisory Council headed by Ms. Sonia Gandhi - these estimates have political authority but not economic sense. These two high priest estimates suggest that absolute poverty in India ranges from 50 to 78 percent of the population. Are you sufficiently confused about what the state of poverty in India? Yes, and that is precisely the effect desired.