The bigger you are the more visible you will be.

"India loves foreign investors, yet it doesn't trust them fully. Foreign investors adore Indian markets, but head for the escape chute at the first sign of trouble," wrote JP Upadhyay. Speaking at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi "invited foreign investors in sectors such as real estate, defence, infrastructure and food". Modi boasted of "democracy, political stability, predictable policy and an independent judiciary". Democracy in India means winning elections through 'competitive populism', promising handouts to the 'vote bank'. In addition to the numerous social schemes that were already in place, Modi has started dozens of new schemes to win elections. 'Political stability' is ensured by draconian laws that were enacted by the British to subjugate Indians, wrote Meghnad Desai. "The British rulers never understood their subjects -- the mob as they called it." Thomas Babington Macaulay designed the repressive Indian Penal Code (IPC). But, when Indians came to power "they did nothing to remove the IPC or even amend its worst features. When they had the chance, they retained not just the IPC but the entire collection of laws of repression installed by the British." Our judiciary maybe independent but it is of little use to citizens because cases go on forever. More than 3.3 crore (33 million) cases are hanging in our courts of which 28.4 million are in lower courts. 4.3 million cases are pending in High Courts of which over 800,000 are over a decade old. In 2017, the Supreme Court apologized to a woman who died while her case languished in various courts for over 13 years. What use was her postmortem victory? When the courts do decide the government refuses to accept the verdict and passes laws with retrospective effect to nullify awards against it and then tries to get an injunction against companies going for arbitration. The government may not even accept adverse judgement from arbitration panels even though a previous government signed up to do so. Despite his election promises in 2014 Modi has not got rid of tax terrorism, wrote A Mukjerjee. As for "predictable policy" Indian governments are known for policy flip-flops. After levying a surcharge on foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in this year's budget the government hastily withdrew it after protests. In 2007, the then government tried to curb investments through participatory notes (PNs) but instantly recoiled when the market tanked by 9%. In April 2018, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said that Indian citizens and non-resident Indians cannot be beneficiary of a foreign fund investing in India. Withdrew the order in September. Foreigners are not investing in manufacturing because our laws are too restrictive and infrastructure is poor, wrote C Jaffrelot. Meanwhile, India has slipped 10 places to 68th in the annual global competitive index and to 102nd out of 117 on the global hunger index. The bigger we grow the more eyes will be focused on us. Speechifying will not fool foreigners.