'Electronic media splash sensational headlines of the bulb prices about to cross the three-figure mark and focus on customers looking longingly at baskets full of onions, bemoaning their misery without this essential staple of their diet,' notes Shreekant Sambrani.

Governments make budgets to retain and consolidate their hold on power, not to please opponents or economists. They do so by trying to gratify as many as possible without causing harm to the others, says Shreekant Sambrani.

Why do hundreds, and in some cases, thousands, turn up for a single vacancy at the lowest rungs of government jobs? The answer is simple: It offers a stable, assured income, which overcomes all other objections, says Shreekant Sambrani.

The title alludes to Socrates willingly drinking poisonous hemlock as his punishment after he was convicted of corrupting the minds of the young and impiety in ancient Athens.

Vallabhbhai Patel's great claim to fame originated from his steely leadership of a struggle against a repressive regime, a good three decades before the achievement of states unification, points out Shreekant Sambrani.

The two leaders had some firm convictions in defence matters and are idolised by their respective people because they salved the scarred collective psyches of their societies.

'We demonise the Others.' 'We are constantly reminded that they are different and are an existential threat to Us.' 'The toxin of Nellie in 1983, Delhi in 1984 and Gujarat in 2002 is not yet flushed out of our body politic,' says Shreekant Sambrani.

The new MSP would worsen, rather than rectify, the two most pressing problems of Indian agriculture: Wastage of water from all sources and a tendency towards monocropping, says Shreekant Sambrani. On the other hand, a simple-minded recourse to them without a host of supporting measures could well exacerbate not just agriculture, but the overall economy as well, says Shreekant Sambrani.

'We will have a well-designed product, and not a compromise.' 'We will make a completely contemporary vehicle, in keeping with consumers' aspirations, not like the Nano, which disappointed them,' Sajjan Jindal tells Shreekant Sambrani.

'In the final analysis, all Budgets everywhere are like the schemes hatched by A A Milne's lovable Winnie-the-Pooh.' 'They may be well-intended, but often go awry.' 'Although Pooh and his friends agree that he 'has very little brain', he is occasionally acknowledged to have a clever idea, usually driven by common sense.' 'This Budget at a first glance does not appear to belong to that latter category,' says economist Shreekant Sambrani.

India's freedom, its rambling but working Constitution, its parliamentary democracy, its lumbering administrative machinery all have many a father, but its greatest claim to fame, especially today, that of being a modern state, is due to but one person: Its first and longest-serving prime minister, Nehru, says Shreekant Sambrani.

'The decline in BJP seats tells us that despite the rote incantation of the development mantra, Gujarat is not immune to the economic pain the country is feeling and is telling the ruling party so,' says Shreekant Sambrani.

During his 37 year rule, the nation's lush fields became wastelands, disease and hunger became rampant and the economy registered a negative growth of six per cent.

We could be on the brink if our export industries actually start losing jobs, says Shreekant Sambrani.

Watchdogs of the economy have not been barking and it is high time we noticed it, says Shreekant Sambrani.

Religion is but one trait where intolerance manifests itself. We come across 'chosen' races, communities, political ideologies, economic systems, all lending themselves to discriminatory arrangements, which trample the rights of those considered beyond the pale of whatever is the favoured calling.

Questioning the bullet train in view of the investment needed in Indian Railways is similar to saying that India needed to invest in primary education rather than in IITs, says Shreekant Sambrani.

Prime Minister Modi will continue to take the nation by surprise, catching his political opponents offguard, says Shreekant Sambrani.

'While Piyush Goel, Dharmendra Pradhan, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and a clutch of former bureaucrats including R K Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri and K J Alphons are loyal BJP members, none of them fit the mould of party apparatchiks.' 'In fact, many of the latter kind have been shown the door or have been given reduced charges.' 'That goes to show the prime minister's comfort level in dealing with professionals and administrators and the trust he reposes in them,' says Shreekant Sambrani.

India is free, certainly, and has been so for 70 years. But are Indians free-spirited? asks Shreekant Sambrani.