Hyderabad, Aug. 18 -- One word in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech on the Independence Day from the Red Fort's ramparts has been problematic to me. It was a "gift" of reduced GST rates come Diwali. No doubt a lowered rate on consumption items would be welcome, but the "gift" rankled. No government should give a gift but deliver the entitlements. Government is not a benefactor; it is an enabler.

Even if he had not used the word, the media would have trumpeted it. Like the "gift of a metro, a project, always avoiding the purpose and details but measured in the awesome crores of rupees to be spent. These could even be inflated and liable to cost overruns. Governments and their agencies, both at the states and centre are prone to it. Th...