My motivation in reading about the past has been to see if there is a way we in India can make a better political choice in 2014, when the next elections are due (unless of course, we have a mid-term poll). Will the Congress be back for one more term? Will the BJP manage to break the Congress run? Will there be a surprise?
All of these questions matter if we want to see India on a track of development and good governance. What we have right now is a country on auto-pilot. There are aspirations of a generation of people who want to do so much. The world needs places that can grow fast so they can invest in these economies. And there are those who would like to see an India get its due place in the global ecosystem.
None of this is going to happen by default or accident. There has to be some design to it. While change could happen outside the political system also, the power of good leaders to orchestrate a better future is unparalleled. And as we have seen in our past, leaders can also create bad policies which can prevent growth and development.
Continued tomorrow.
