Don’t say "gifts" please; citizens are entitled to better facilities

Don’t say "gifts" please; citizens are entitled to better facilities

One word in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on the Independence Day from the Red Fort’s ramparts has been problematic to me. It was a “gift” of reduced GST rates come Diwali. No doubt a lowered rate on consumption items would be welcome, but the “gift” rankled. No government should give a gift but deliver the entitlements. Government is not a benefactor; it is an enabler. Even if he had not used the word, the media would have trumpeted it.…