Inflation! 11.91%

Tuesday’s trust vote was not merely about who governs the nation for how long, but also about tackling something much larger: a daily cash flow that’s gone awry ever since the inflation rate climbed to 11.91 per cent, double of what it was less than four months ago.
Regardless of how it ended, the debate about the future of the UPA government in the Lok Sabha was as dignified a discussion as we can possibly get in a political environment of ‘single-digit’ parties leveraging their presence to extract their pounds of flesh. The economic stage was set with both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani agreeing that the nuances of signing the Indo-US nuclear deal is a non-issue when inflation has hit — and threatens to stay — in double digits, eating into the very vitals of Indian households. So what about the Real McCoy: double-digit inflation?

Opinion in Hindustan Times, July 22, 2008