Theek nahi hai. No way.

Our most revered Prime Minister said that he was " determined to turn any setback into an opportunity to improve legal and regulatory frameworks ". TOI, 9 January. He was speaking at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Kochi which is a knees-up for non-resident Indians during which there is a lot of talking but nothing real gets done. He said this because he thinks," There is now a surge of expectation from an increasingly empowered and articulate public, for more responsive, transparent, participative, clean and efficient government." Everything he says is so untrue. The people do not want more laws. We are a police state gasping for freedom from ever intrusive laws. What we want is a police free of politicians, trained to respond to our needs and guarding our communities instead of criminal VIPs. There has always been a great hunger for a good government but until now our voice was suppressed by a freeloading press. Now the internet and social media have allowed us to have a say, if only to each other, about the contempt and anger we feel. That is why the government is desperate to censor the internet and has passed the Information Technology Act of 2011 which seeks to punish anything which is " offensive ", " grossly harmful " or " obscene ". India also wanted to transfer the control of the internet to a UN Committee on Internet Related Policies which would have governments controlling the internet. Fortunately this was fiercely resisted by the US, Australia and the UK. Blaming the world for the condition or our economy he said," From an impressive average annual GDP growth rate of over 8% between 2004 and 2010, our growth declined to 6.5% in 2011-12 and may fall below 6% in the current year." Again completely false. Our high growth was because of loose monetary policies in western countries leading to high liquidity and low interest rates. That was the time to bring in reforms, control inflation and buy dollars to keep the rupee from rising too high. HSBC has cut our growth forecast for this fiscal from 5.7% to 5.2% and for the next year from 6.9% to 6.2%. It says that the slowdown is structural rather than cyclical and says," We think the reform process will take time and it will likely be another 3 years before growth returns to 8% on a sustained basis." HT, 10 January. The Prime Minister also said," New approaches will be needed to address  challenges like infrastructure, education, energy, water and agriculture." We are entitled to ask," What the hell were you doing for 8 long years since 2004?" Meanwhile the ratings agency Fitch says that India will face a downgrade in 12 to 24 months because it will miss its deficit target and its macroeconomic trends are disappointing. This government has been the most dismal failure in history. He may ask," Theek hai?" We say loudly - No Way.