There can hardly be any disagreement on the need for such measures. So, political parties will have little or no difficulty in mouthing these platitudes, or endorsing them in their manifestoes. It will mean, as it has meant all these years, precisely nothing.

Political parties are not going to be tied down to their poll promises unless and until they are required to show funding for their programmes. A party which promises employment generation, for example, should be asked to specify where it is supposed to get the funds from. If a political party promises tax cuts, it should indicate how much revenue will be foregone, which programmes will suffer as a result, or how it will make up the lost revenue. Measures tostimulate demand should show the source of the funds, and whether additional taxation will be required. Only if politicians carry out such an exercise will any meaningful discussion of economic policies emerge.

Admittedly, however, this is asking for the moon. In a polity where leaders routinely justify huge subsidies to rich farmers without batting an eyelid, politicians will not worry about answering trivia on how the books will be balanced. Nor have elections in this country been fought on the basis of economic policies, apart from the occasional one on onion prices.

Nevertheless, sustained pressure from trade and industry bodies may result in clarifying the issues involved to political parties, making them give more time and thought to economic policy.