That the Union government has been an unmitigated disaster since the UPA got re-elected in 2009 is a point that is not even debated of late; it is accepted as a truism. It has thrown the reform agenda out of the window, and the three-year-long policy paralysis in New Delhi is something that is going to bite us hard, if it hasn’t already.

Since its return, the UPA-2, as it is known, has been embroiled in scam after scam, and the veneer of honesty the former finance minister brought to the office of Prime Minister in 2004 was quickly erased as he presided over what is easily the most corrupt administration in the history of Independent India.