#204 The Distant Roll Of Thunder

<p><strong>Global Policy Watch: Accident Ho Gaya</strong></p><p><em>Insights on global policy issues relevant to India</em></p><p><em>— RSJ</em></p><p>I must admit there are times when I have made a big deal about writing this newsletter. Not about the content, mind you. I’m not that vain yet. But the regularity of it all. Getting about 4000 words out between the two of us every week isn’t trivial stuff. But then there are weeks I ask myself if it is really a big deal. I mean, there are weeks when there’s so much happening in policy, politics and macro spheres that things just write themselves. I have been in what could be called writing self-help groups where people bemoan their writer’s blocks and the soul-crushing experience of staring at a blank word document with the cursor blinking. To them, I have two pieces of advice. Switch to writing on public policy. And don’t bother much about quality (speaking for me here, not what Pranay produces). </p><p>Voila! You get something like 50% of this newsletter.</p><p>Anyway, coming back to this week. Sometime midweek, I thought it might be a good idea to write about the state of opposition in India in the light of Rahul Gandhi’s <em>Bharat Jodo Yatra</em> and his media engagements in Oxford. There’s always space for the opposition in India despite the brutal electoral majority of the party in power, as we have seen in the past. This was evident during the yatra. What is also evident now is that there’s a complete lack of understanding on the part of Rahul Gandhi on issues that can animate the electorate. So, he can only hope for the party in power to hit self-destruct mode to score an electoral victory. What’s worse is he has terrible ideas of his own and a tin ear for good advice. His acolytes defend him saying he’s sincere. I can only say when you combine sincerity with bad ideas, you get demonetisation and instant lockdowns. Back to the point. As I was thinking of writing about this, news came in of Manish Sisodia, the deputy CM of Delhi, being taken into custody by