Although for the past seven decades-plus Republic Day (January 26) has been celebrated with ceremonial flag-hoisting and Soviet-style parades advertising the country’s military prowess, ideally Republic Day should be a day of deep reflection and remembrance of things past to understand why 76 years on, modest aspirations — adequate food, shelter, clothing, public health, education and transport — have proved elusive for the overwhelming majority of citizens of the Republic. Despite the emergence of a modestly affluent 400 million-strong middle class, the question of why over 1 billion citizens are mere spectators in the much proclaimed India growth story and obliged to eke out nasty, brutish and perhaps too-long lives, needs answers.

Honest reflection requires a diagnosis of why newly independent India’s tryst with destiny went off the rails. The root cause was disregarding the subcontinent’s private enterprise history of several millennia and adopting the socialist model of development. This resulted in canalisation of national savings into giant, capital-intensive public sector enterprises (PSEs) managed by government employees while simultaneously slowing the growth of private enterprises by ensnaring them in red tape and complex procedures.

Unsurprisingly, PSEs managed by government bureaucrats and clerks were unable to generate the profit required for investment in public education and health. As a result, development of rural India which at the time of independence hosted 80 percent of the national population, and rural primary education in particular, was grievously neglected. It was only in 1991 that the Indian economy which averaged annual GDP growth of 3.5 percent — perhaps the lowest worldwide — for half a century was partially liberalised and deregulated and the licence-permit-quota raj that had bound private industry in reams of red tape, was relaxed. India’s public (government) schools which negligently educate 52 percent of 260 million school-going children continue to be defined by crumbling buildings, multi-grade teaching-learning and abysmal learning outcomes.

Curiously, the panoply of eminent economists, many with global reputations, advising the Centre and states have a collective blindspot about public education. As in decades past, the Union Budget 2026-27 presented on February 1 failed to allocate more than 0.5 percent of GDP for education when it should provision 2-3 percent to inspire state governments to follow its example so that national expenditure on public education aggregates 6 percent of GDP, prescribed as the minimum requirement way back in 1967.

This depressing scenario requires the pressure of the educated middle class to move public education to the top of the national development agenda. Although our eminent economists and political leaders don’t seem to be aware, QEFA (quality education for all) is the non-negotiable precondition of national development. It’s a tragedy this is a national blindspot.