Times of Better Bharat

The Defence Minister spent Diwali with soldiers at forward posts on the China border in Sikkim, and told them that the country's ability to celebrate the festival in peace was made possible by the sacrifice and dedication of the armed forces ([NDTV](https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/rajnath-singh-celebrates-diwali-with-army-at-indo-china-border-in-sikkim-12300456#publisher=newsstand)). The Defence Ministry's own release records the visit to the forward areas in the state ([PIB](https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2334152)). There is nothing to sneer at here. A minister who marks the festival with the men and women who will hold that ground through the winter is doing part of the job, and doing it in the right place.

But it is a part, and the flattery of the gesture should not be mistaken for the substance of the policy.

The frontier is judged by duller things

A border is not held by a photograph of a minister with a plate of sweets. It is held by the rotation schedule that does not break a battalion, the winter stocking that arrives before the passes close, the road that stays open, the shelter that keeps, the sensor that detects, the rifle that fires when it is cold and dirty. None of that appears in a festival visit. All of it decides whether the visit is a courtesy or a substitute for one.

The deeper problem is economic. India's military expenditure stands at around 2.3 per cent of GDP by SIPRI's reckoning ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS)), in an economy of roughly US$3.96 trillion growing at 7.6 per cent ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD)). Yet arms imports remain substantial, at 2.86 billion in SIPRI trend-indicator value ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.MPRT.KD)), and research and development spending sits at 0.6 per cent of GDP in UNESCO's 2020 data ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS)). A large, fast-growing economy with that research intensity is choosing, whether it admits it or not, to rent much of its military capability rather than build it.

The indigenisation argument, honestly put

This is contested ground and should be marked as such. The case for imports is real: Indian industry has repeatedly missed timelines, and a soldier on a forward post needs the equipment that works this year, not the equipment promised for 2035. The case for indigenisation is also real: dependence is a vulnerability that no amount of border tourism cures, and every foreign purchase is a supply chain someone else can throttle. My judgement — an argument, not a fact — is that the balance has tilted too long towards buying and too little towards the patient, unglamorous funding of design, testing and production. The remedy is not a slogan but procurement reform and sustained research money, which are precisely the things no Diwali photograph captures.

The long-term contest with China will not be settled by a season's posturing in any one sector. It will be settled by industrial depth, by the credibility of deterrence, and by whether India's strategic autonomy rests on capability or merely on rhetoric.

The minister's words were true: the country celebrates because its soldiers stand watch. The corollary is less comfortable. The country owes them more than gratitude — it owes them equipment worth the wait, and a system that does not make them wait a decade.

The Hindu reports today that a fresh sexual harassment complaint has been filed against the granite businessman Veeramani, and that action has been initiated on the statement of a minor who was previously a witness in an already registered case (https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/fresh-sexual-harassment-complaint-against-granite-baron-veeramani/article71680898.ece). Nothing in that report is a finding of guilt. The man is entitled to the presumption of innocence and to a fair trial, as every accused is. But the shape of the case — a complainant with no fortune to deploy against a man the press describes as a "granite baron" (https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/fresh-sexual-harassment-complaint-against-granite-baron-veeramani-101794136067455.html) — is precisely the shape in which a republic discovers whether its promise of equality is a right or a slogan.

The law is tested from below A constitution that guarantees equality before the law is not judged at its summit. It is judged at the point where a complainant with no resources faces an accused with many. That a person who was already a witness in an earlier case now comes forward with her own complaint is not itself proof of anything; it is, however, a reminder that witnesses live in the same unequal world as everyone else — exposed, unshielded and easily worn down. My judgement, stated as a judgement, is this: when a witness becomes a complainant, the state's obligation to protect her is not a courtesy. It is the price of having asked her to speak at all.

The numbers we prefer not to see The National Crime Records Bureau counted 4,45,256 cases of crime against women in 2022 — 66.4 cases per lakh women, roughly 51 FIRs every hour — a figure marked [CONTESTED], as all such counts must be, since under-reporting is the known bias (https://ncrb.gov.in/en/crime-india). It recorded 1,77,335 crimes against children in 2023, up 9.2% on the previous year, with POCSO offences forming 38.2% of the total, again marked [CONTESTED] (https://ncrb.gov.in/en/crime-india). These are not domestic footnotes. They are the daily evidence of the gap this column keeps returning to: political democracy has arrived, social democracy has not. Formal equality on the statute book coexists with a hierarchy of credibility in which the wealthy man's reputation is treated as a public asset and the ordinary complainant's as disposable.

Due process cuts both ways, and delay is not neutral India stands 86th of 143 on the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index 2025, with a score of 0.49, down seven places (https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/downloads/WJPIndex2025.pdf). Pre-trial detainees make up 72.6% of the prison population (https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/india). A system this slow is not neutral: delay is a service the wealthy can afford. So the demands here are not partisan — a time-bound investigation, witness protection as routine rather than favour, no pressure on a minor to compromise, and, with equal force, no conviction by newspaper. The protection of the complainant and the protection of the accused are the same principle applied honestly to two people.

What fraternity asks of us The Constitution's fraternity is not a sentiment; it is a working arrangement in which no citizen's dignity depends on his bank balance. The test of this case will not be the verdict alone, but whether the machinery moved with the same speed it would have shown against a poor man. That is the standard. Hold it, and the republic holds.

Start with what is actually known

The report is short, and should be read as it stands: Israel has deported fourteen people who were on a Palestinian solidarity mission, among them a journalist and a 77-year-old activist ([TOI](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-deports-journalist-77-year-old-activist-among-14-on-palestinian-solidarity-mission/articleshow/135658109.cms)). We are not told their names, their nationalities, or the grounds the state gave. Those absences matter, because most of the argument that follows will fill them in with whatever suits the writer's prior. An opinion column is entitled to a view; it is not entitled to invent the facts that make the view easy.

The rule, not the rank

Two propositions can be held at once. First, a sovereign state controls who enters and who stays; that is not a novel proposition in international practice, and no serious account of sovereignty disputes it. Second, some things are not made trivial by a visa stamp. A journalist travelling to report is doing the work that distinguishes a public from an audience. A 77-year-old is not, as a general rule, a security emergency. My judgement — and I mark it as a judgement — is that a state which expels observers has decided that being seen is the problem. That is a claim about a government's conduct, not about a people, and it should be argued on the record rather than on the mood.

The symmetry test

Here is the discipline this desk exists to apply. Take the sentence you would write about this deportation. Now substitute another state's name — one you like better, or one you fear more. Does the sentence still stand? If it collapses, it was never a principle; it was a tribal reflex wearing a legal vocabulary. The reflex is familiar in Indian commentary on foreign affairs: the same act described as border management in one capital and suppression in another, with the adjective chosen before the facts were read. The remedy is not silence. It is a rule you would apply to your own government first.

Look home before you lecture

That is not whataboutery; it is credibility. India stands 157th of 180 in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index with a score of 31.96, down six places — a ranking the Indian government has publicly disputed on methodology and sample size ([RSF](https://rsf.org/en/index)). On V-Dem's freedom-of-expression index India sits at 0.46 on a 0–1 scale ([Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/freedom-of-expression-index)), and the World Justice Project's 2025 Rule of Law Index places it 86th of 143, down seven places ([WJP](https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/downloads/WJPIndex2025.pdf)). None of this disqualifies an Indian writer from criticising a deportation abroad. It does mean the criticism has to be made of the rule rather than of the accent. The country that will be listened to on press freedom is the one whose own courts, police and taxing authorities treat the reporter and the protester alike.

What equal application demands

Defending a principle is cheap when it costs nothing. It becomes real when it is applied to people whose politics we find tiresome, to states we otherwise admire, and to our own institutions when they are the ones holding the pen. The test of equal citizenship is not whether we cheer the right people. It is whether the rule we invoke survives the substitutions.

The Telangana government has set itself a target of making one crore women millionaires by 2034, with a promise of greater economic opportunity for self-help group members and women's empowerment placed at the centre of policy ([The Hindu](https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/revanth-sets-target-of-making-one-crore-women-millionaires-by-2034/article71680974.ece)). Against a political habit of announcing outlays rather than outcomes, an income target deserves to be taken seriously. The question worth asking is not whether the number is inspiring, but whether the instrument to reach it exists.

A target is not a mechanism

Begin with the unit. A crore of rupees in 2034 will buy appreciably less than a crore today; that follows from any positive rate of inflation, and India's consumer price inflation ran at 2.4% a year in 2025 ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG)). This is arithmetic, not forecast. A goal denominated in nominal wealth can therefore be met by price drift while real lives stay where they are. It would be better stated in constant rupees, or in something harder to fudge: the number of women-owned enterprises above a stated turnover, counted and published district by district every year.

The binding constraint is a market, not a bank account

The self-help movement has already won the access argument: 89% of Indian adults hold a bank account ([Global Findex](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FX.OWN.TOTL.ZS)). What women lack is buyers. Female labour-force participation stands at 32.4%, against 55.7% for the population overall ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS)) — a gap that has little to do with passbooks. Farm output per worker is US$2,159 ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.AGR.EMPL.KD)). A district economy that sells only raw produce cannot pay a crore of its women a million each. Incomes rise where value is added close to the farm and the workshop: grading, processing, packaging, cold chain, repair, design.

Credit is not capital

Once a target is announced, the temptation is to route credit towards it. But a loan is a liability, and a millionaire is made by margins. With 16.1% of Indians below $3.65 a day ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.LMIC)), one bad repayment cycle can undo a decade of household progress. Lending that creates a trading business is not the same as lending that creates a productive one.

Build the spoke economy

My own view, offered as prescription rather than prophecy: one productive cluster per district, with a common facility centre, a quality-testing bench and design support; government as first buyer, sourcing uniforms, nutrition supplies and furniture from women-owned units with payment on time; and every cluster tied to a local ITI or polytechnic so that apprenticeship runs alongside formal education rather than instead of it. India spends 0.6% of GDP on research and development and counts 259.3 researchers per million people ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS)); that thin capability must be pointed at district problems — materials, storage, small machines — not only at the frontier.

The contrast is instructive. The Sensex added 7,781.99 points, or 10.62%, in seven sessions before the Diwali session ([TOI](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/muhurat-trading-stock-markets-end-marginally-lower-in-special-diwali-session-snapping-7-day-rally/articleshow/135660198.cms)). A fine thing for those already holding. But that is wealth changing hands. A crore of women with enterprises is wealth being created, in a country where manufacturing is still 13.5% of GDP ([World Bank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.ZS)).

If Telangana publishes enterprise counts, procurement commitments and apprentice seats each year, and counts no loan as income, the headline number may arrive late. The incomes will arrive. That is the difference between a target and a build.

A festival of light, lit under a sky we cannot see through. Delhi's air quality was already 'very poor' on Diwali day, with an average AQI of 376 and, of the 59 monitoring stations that reported, 12 in the 'severe' category and 22 'very poor' ([Hindustan Times](https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/delhis-air-struggle-begins-ahead-of-diwali-firecrackers-records-very-poor-air-quality-with-376-aqi-101794143976910.html)). The forecast is worse: 'severe' on Monday, on the combination of vehicular emissions and the peak stubble-burning season ([NDTV](https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/delhi-air-quality-turns-very-poor-on-diwali-to-turn-severe-tomorrow-12300486#publisher=newsstand)).

Blame is the cheapest fuel

The instinct is to find the culprit. Crackers, or the farmer's straw, or the car outside the gate. Each of these is real; each is insufficient on its own. A farmer with a narrow window between harvest and sowing is not the author of this problem — the system that gives his straw no value is. That is a judgement, and I offer it as one, not as a finding.

Blame burns clean and warms nobody. It is the one fuel we never run short of.

The base of the argument

Set the day's numbers inside the year's. India ranks sixth of 143 countries on population-weighted PM2.5 at 48.9 µg/m³, close to ten times the WHO guideline of 5; Delhi remains the world's most polluted capital at 82.2 µg/m³ — a three-year low, and still unbreathable ([IQAir](https://www.iqair.com/world-air-quality-report)). India sits 176th of 177 on the Environmental Performance Index, a ranking the Environment Ministry has contested and which must be read as [CONTESTED](https://epi.yale.edu/) — though the same index shows a positive ten-year change of +7.47. Improvement is real. It is also nowhere near enough.

Which brings us to the part of the ledger we rarely open. Forest cover stands at 24.4% of land area ([World Bank/FAO](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.FRST.ZS)), while tree cover loss runs at 1,25,678 hectares a year ([Global Forest Watch, via Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/tree-cover-loss)). Trees are the cheapest air-conditioning, filtration and flood defence a city can install, and the only infrastructure that grows while it works. It is my judgement that a country measuring its growth so carefully should measure its canopy just as closely.

The inward turn

Well-being begins with breath, which makes clean air a personal matter before it is a policy one. Pranayama practised in particulate is a contradiction, not a discipline. The restraint this festival asks for is not austerity for its own sake — it is the ordinary dharmic arithmetic of moderation: enough is a feast; more is a fire.

And the fire has a cost. In Tamil Nadu, one child died and 269 people were treated for burn injuries during Deepavali ([The Hindu](https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/one-child-dead-269-treated-for-burn-injuries-in-tn-during-deepavali/article71680951.ece)). Care with flame is not a slogan; it is the ritual itself, performed properly.

Responsibility is not the same as being blamed. The citizen's share is real — his cracker, his car, his tree, his consumption — and so is the institution's. Both can be held at once. A civilisation is only as durable as its soil, its water and its air. Tonight the lamps are lit; tomorrow we should look at the sky they are lit against, and decide that we meant the light, not the smoke.