Indians are emotional people. It is no surprise, therefore, that our national discourse is, like our stock market, clouded by sentiment. Worse still, the outrage is temporary, and the very sentiment that pushed the issue to the top of the headlines and coffee shop discussion agenda is pulled down until another outrage takes its place. And the cycle repeats.

We are also an individualistic society where personalities are put on a pedestal one day and pulled down and buried the next. No matter what the issue is, it is about the person rather than the idea.