This suit-boot business

The beauty of the crony capital mechanism for politician and the business community alike is that it allows for deniability - even though its impacts are publicly visible

Rahul Gandhi may not represent the most robust or convincing opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but his 2015 Suit Boot ki Sarkar crack about the Modi government has clearly rankled. That the phrase, a folksy reference to crony capitalism, figured prominently in the debates during the no-trust vote this July highlights an uncomfortable truth about India’s post-liberalisation political economy.
 
It is this: The licence raj is dead, long live crony capitalism. The government-business complex that flourished in the heyday of licensing and controls remains in modified form. Some of the marque names have changed, of course, and the