And the second leg?

The Prime Minister managed to sound a purposeful note in his Independence Day address from Red Fort in the capital.

But against the backdrop of a more or less paralysed government that is caught between its own reformist convictions and the populist pressures from the Left as well as Sonia Gandhi's National Advisory Council, Manmohan Singh could be asking himself whether he is in fact delivering the goods that he promises.

Recalling the "seven sutras" in his Independence Day speech last year, Dr Singh began recounting what had been done on those seven issues but soon lost his way because there wasn't much to report.

As for the new promises, with the solitary exception of infrastructure, they were singularly divorced from the early statement that five to 10 years of 7 per cent growth will help abolish poverty. Most of the speech was devoted, not to growth-oriented imperatives that would ensure that the economy stays on the 7 per cent growth track, but to the political promise of keeping the "aam aadmi" in focus.

This is understandable to a degree, because that is the slogan on the basis of which the Congress-led coalition believes it came to office. So it was expected that the Prime Minister would talk of the proposed law for guaranteeing rural employment, the new tribal rights Bill, the multi-pronged Bharat Nirman programme aimed at several objectives (water, electricity supply, road connectivity to villages, and so on)""and indeed all of this is unexceptionable.

It is equally desirable that there be a programme for the rainfed areas, and an urban renewal mission. In other words, the Prime Minister touched all the right buttons during his speech.

But in asserting that the country must "walk on two legs" by achieving economic growth while ensuring social justice, and in saying further that "the biggest challenge in running a Government is to ensure that development programmes are implemented in an effective manner", Dr Singh put his finger on two key problems only to then fail to address them.

The biggest infrastructure problem the country faces today is with regard to electricity supply. But other than a mention of some large numbers on fresh generation capacity, there was nothing credible on how the potential demand is to be met.

As for the effectiveness of development programmes, there was nothing once again on how the new spending programmes will benefit the target people, and not cause more wastage and corruption as has been the past experience.

With regard to the productivity issues that must underpin rapid growth, again there was silence. This is not surprising, since the government has already given up all attempts to address rigid labour laws, privatisation and ways of getting more foreign investment.

The fact is that this government was fortunate to inherit a rapidly growing economy. Dr Singh gets the credit for macro-economic policies over the past year that have helped sustain that initial tempo.

But keeping growth at this rate (which, as the Prime Minister acknowledges in his speech, holds the key to abolishing poverty) requires a series of policy initiatives on which we heard nothing. This is not walking on two legs; it is assuming that one of the legs will take care of itself.