If there is one thing that makes me instantly suspicious, it is when political leaders make appeals to us citizens in the name of patriotism. What always comes to mind is that old warning from the British political thinker Samuel Johnson. As long ago as the eighteenth century he noticed that ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel’. This is why it disturbed me a little when the Prime Minister while making his appeal for ‘austerity’ urged us citizens of India to start tightening our belts in the name of patriotism. Or ‘desh bhakti’ as we like to call it since it evokes love of our beloved Bharat Mata instead of mere patriotism.

We all know that these are hard times not just for India but for the world. And that it is not the fault of our own dear leader that his dream for making our country fully ‘developed’ by 2047 could now be seriously endangered. It was in any case an ambitious goal considering that nearly half of our citizens survive on subsidised grain from the government. And our women are so very poor that they are inclined these days to vote for any political party that offers them pocket money of as little as Rs 1,500 a month.

In the Maharashtra election, I witnessed with my own eyes how this turned the tide in favour of the incumbent BJP/Shiv Sena government. So effective are these election time handouts that........

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