Why economist Ashoka Mody feels India needs to rethink its priorities

The Princeton professor, Mody tells Kanika Datta, "Nehru, though an honourable man, had an Achilles heel: he knew what he wanted but did not know how to get from there to his goal"

Just four days before news that some 600 families had been ordered to evacuate Joshimath, the economist Ashoka Mody breaks off from explaining his analysis of the erosion of social norms in India to declare “Joshimath is sinking”. I blink at this seemingly non-sequitur statement. It isn’t, of course, being linked to the theme of Mody’s apocalyptically titled latest book, India Is Broken and Why it’s Hard to Fix (Juggernaut). In case the reader doesn’t get the message, the cover declares: “A People Betrayed, 1947 to today”.

The tonality seems uncharacteristic for the Princeton economist, whom I remember as mild