No, I disagree with Shobhaa De.

This is not Superstar India. Give this country, give our people more freedom and we will show you what Superstar India can be. The biggest, strongest, most creative nation in the world. But for that to happen we must dismantle our oppressive structures of governance and allow more free play to those who can take the nation ahead. You can’t allow a preponderance of absurd laws and restrictive regulations to strangle every initiative and, worse, make every opportunity into a nightmare. Red tape ties up everything. Any business you do needs a hundred permissions and a thousand sign-offs by corrupt officers. Files still take years to move. Tax return forms are getting more and more complex. So are the tax laws.. Every Government department jumps up suddenly and makes all kinds of absurd, unreasonable claims so much so that it has become impossible to do any business in Mumbai. The economics don't work. Taxes, duties, octroi, a million regulatory approvals, charges on contracts signed and unsigned. It’s too complex for someone with a great idea who wants to jump into business and quickly monetise it. He can do it anywhere else in the world, faster, cheaper, easier — with his conscience clean.

The more we get caught in the hype of Superstar India, the more entrenched gets this system, the less we feel the need to change. So the disgusting culture of control and corruption, the hallmark of the regulatory Raj, persists. We cease to forget our true potential as a free nation and keep celebrating our minor achievements as an enslaved one. Yes, it’s true we are no longer a colony of the British. Yes, we have set a 8 to 9 per cent growth rate for ourselves. But the truth is: We can do much better. We are still slaves of a political system that rules by a million silly laws. And every day sillier laws are being enacted to enlarge this scope of control.

Some idiot thinks that centuries old historical wrongs must be corrected by punishing today's young people. So he introduces reservations that make merit take a back seat — even in institutions of higher learning. Another fool thinks that foreign investments are dangerous. So he makes it difficult for local enterprise and local talent to find global funding.

A third thinks that firang culture will corrupt Indian kids. So he devises rules and regulations to ensure that Minnie Mouse and Casper the friendly ghost are fully clad on your TV screen. A fourth wants to chuck out cheerleaders from the IPL. A fifth wants the censor board to certify newspapers and magazines. A sixth wants to fight inflation by reining in salaries in the private sector while under worked, over compensated Government employees are all set to get huge raises for holding India ransom to change. A seventh wants to enter the history books for banning smoking, drinking and eating potato chips — no, not in real life but on screen.

So when Raj Thackeray makes demands that sway the Marathi manoos but could seriously damage our notion of nationhood, every politician except those whose constituencies are hurt keep quiet. This is exactly what happened when the Nazis rose. Everyone kept quiet because they thought Hitler’s histrionics would hurt others, not them. By the time they figured out their mistake, it was too late. That’s our tragedy. We want to photoshop out all those who don’t belong to our beautiful picture of modern India. So we focus on arrant nonsense. Shutting down beer bars. Banning pom pom dancers. Censoring TV shows. Closing hookah parlours. Breaking down vada pao stalls in Nariman Point. Interrupting art shows at the Jehangir. Throwing second hand booksellers off the pavement. Stopping women from working beyond 9 pm. These have become the priorities of a brain-dead State that yearns to control everything.