Independence is a very subjective assessment.

A government can do only what is feasible given the political and economic context.

People understand what is good for them in the long run. In the long run, what is good for people is that India's economy continues to grow at clipping pace, 8% and above, that itself brings host of benefits to the people. It brings better roads, it brings better schools, brings more money to the communities, it brings more jobs.

If you go back to any period in India's history, all the hard decisions this country had to take were taken when the Congress was in power.

Criticism of a policy is welcome. But in the garb of criticizing a policy, if you allege that the policy was made for corrupt purposes, I reject it.

Evidence points out that if you raise tariffs too much it will increase smuggling.

Let me tell you, very frankly, when I went to the Harvard Business School I was more or less a committed socialist.