'a solid commentator'

I wrote a piece in FE on a roadmap for India. I thought it was good. But it was not as solid as Gopi's comments. You all can realize why he was my inspiration from his comments below: He wrote:

"Hi Jayanto,
Thanks for the article. Your optimism is worthy of a seasoned warrior. Your roadmap coincided with a bits and pieces trade policy with photographs of three ministers beaming at no one in particular. Like the bourbons they they never learn from history. Not to be outdone, Arjun Singh produced his panacea for equity - more reservations! Surely Planning Commission could not be left behind in the race for the 8% trophy. The PM wants it to look at the roadmap for reduction of subsidies. Optimism of a non-existent will.

It was this context of the summer of our discontent that held me back. Not because of individual actions that make no sense when put together in the larger scheme of things. Before these brave new world announcements there was that will o' the wisp of capital convertibility emanating from on high. One could barely suppress a tired yawn.

Clearly rhetoric has stepped on to the centrestage, replacing the unity of thought and action, or even the more modest, but not on that account of low priority, trial and error. The basics, to which you refer somewhat poignantly - infrastructure, transaction costs, commodity production in primary sector, use of known technology (refrigeration) to add value and increase incomes for low income producers -- well, these basics wander around like waifs in a cold, inhospitable world, spurned and discarded by the glitzy whiz kids of the retail revolution who are sending the stock market into uncharted territories to the huge delight of casino players.

My overwhelming emotion was one of indescribable sadness. Perhaps Tipu Sultan must have felt the same way when confronting the British. If the Indian rulers of the time had the wisdom, the foresight and the resolution to come together they would have been able to keep India safe for an independent trajectory of development. Is the same fate about to befall us. You hear the bell tolling in the spreading anarchy in the belt stretching across from Nepal along the coastal belt of India to the Deccan plateau. But it is business as usual.

Nevertheless it is a good idea to keep reminding the vision makers that it needs more than stirring phrases to put life into the empty phrases. You need building blocks, solid, humble, workmanlike, durable, heat and cold resistant building blocks. They can only be provided by skilled craftsmen like Jayanto who are at the same time filled with a burning passion for a different and more decent society. Not a society of financial bimbos, but a society where people care for each other and for nature. Your roadmap belongs to that genre, full of sadness but also full of longing for a better world.
love
gopi"

I will really miss him. What a loss for India. Even greater loss for me.

Jayanta Roy