"Our problem is that there is too much democracy in India -- that's why difficult decisions never get taken,' declared Sunil Alagh, marketing consultant and supporter of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).


The bon vivant was responding to the uproar over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's shock decision to invalidate 86 percent of India's currency. Alagh's lament betrayed a longing oft expressed by the country's affluent and well heeled -- a craving for the precision and order of authoritarian leadership.


"You know, we need someone like Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore,' can be heard in many swish Delhi drawing rooms, whose attendants are in any case inoculated by wealth against the vagaries of India's economy.  Read Barkha Dutt's column for the Washington Post