When boasting drives logic, the argument is bound to become perverse. The prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, spoke to an overseas audience in London in a much touted programme entitled 'Bharat ki baat, sabke saath'.


Presumably embodying Bharat, Mr Modi fell to publicizing his government's achievements. The government has opened a series of stores where medicine is sold cheaply.


In order to underline the need for this kind of intervention, the prime minister of the country said that Indian doctors do not use generic names of drugs on prescriptions. Instead they give the names of expensive, branded medicines to please pharmaceutical companies that take them on international trips.


This less than pretty account has caused the Indian medical fraternity to react with hurt and anger, and the Indian Medical Association has sent the prime minister a letter expressing its disappointment. While no one denies that some doctors do accept junkets, it is shocking that a prime minister should tar the entire medical fraternity with the same brush of corruption before an international audience.


For more, read the editorial in the Telegraph.