India, July 14 -- It is considered a sin or a serious transgression to make a promise you cannot fulfil. This applies to promises made to both God and people. Breaking a promise, especially a solemn one, is seen as a violation of trust and integrity. That is what President Droupadi Murmu to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to industrialist Mukesh Ambani to journalist Rajdeep Sardesai have been doing for the last few months.

You may wonder what I am talking about. If you are a senior citizen with a Facebook account, you would have seen videos of all the big shots of the establishment, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, industrialists GM Birla and Anand Mahindra, and Google man Sundar Pichai introducing a wonderful investment proje...