When Jay Prakash Narayan called for a total revolution (sampoorna kranti) in 1974, he meant well. But, he faltered in not insisting on developing indicators and tools for midcourse correction. I hope we do not repeat history. After all, in real politics, no visionary can ever anticipate all contingencies that might arise, and thus warrant a quick response. Muddling through the mess of contradictory popular aspirations without compromising with basic ideals is possible, and according to me it is the need of the hour. Every political party has to recognise that the foundation of good governance can be laid only by having a balance between creation of private, common and public goods in society. The cost of creating these goods has to be recovered by prudent fiscal responsibility regime. I have always believed that if we have strong institutions, even weak policies will get corrected during implementation but that won’t happen the other way round.
