As a co-author of the Economic Freedom for the States of India index (which rated Gujarat as the top state on the index in March this year), I have been mutely witnessing the great tamasha that a simple rating of economic conditions across India has become.
It is unfortunate that conditions were created where the independent-minded (but in all likelihood, Congress-sympathetic) Bibek Debroy had to resign from the directorship of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies (RGCIS).
It does not matter that Narendra Modi's ads on the top ranking his state got were a farce, and it is totally irrelevant to the matter that Gujarat's ranking had nothing to do with Narendra Modi.
It was the result of hard work and good decisions by many previous administrations -- those of the BJP as well as the Congress. The key issue, however, is that of institutions, institution builders and institutional independence.
It is not easy to build and sustain any research institute. Despite the fact that the RGICS governing council reads like the who's-who of the uppermost echelons of the Congress, it benefited from studies sponsored by ministries headed by many different political personalities -- both Congress members and those inimical to the Congress.
Bibek Debroy was able to build it into a nationally and internationally respected research organisation. Its conferences and seminars attracted people from all parts of the political and non-political/ academic spectrum.
It was the one place in Delhi where leaders and thinkers of all hues could be seen sitting side by side discussing and arguing issues of national and international importance.
I do not know of any other place in the nation's capital, where the Left and right, BJP and Congress, Shiv Sena and CPM, Leftist and rightist intellectuals, pro- and anti-reformists, would discuss their views and concerns in a mature and open fashion. This could not have been easy to achieve.
By responding to the crass Narendra Modi ads (that even the BJP did not take seriously) the RGICS governing council has, in one stroke, wiped away the energy and atmosphere that characterised the institute.
Jawaharlal Nehru was instrumental in setting up the National Council of Applied Economic Research 50 years ago.
NCAER was set up outside the government and was given complete autonomy to freely critique what Nehru's favourite child -- the Planning Commission -- was up to.
Nehru deliberately did not head NCAER, nor did he allow its independence to be overshadowed by momentary political considerations.
But then Nehru was an institution builder.
The author is Director, Indicus Analytics, an economics research firm.
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