It is hard to believe that there was a time when we talked of things other than Gujarat. That our prime minister talked of making India a financial superpower and promised us economic growth of 9 per cent and that his cabinet ministers concentrated on chalking out strategies for this to happen. Hard to believe that we talked of finding a solution to Kashmir and that we were eager and respected members of the global war against terrorism. When we spoke of how we had suffered at the hands of Pakistan-sponsored Islamic terrorists, other countries listened and sought our advice. Today, we do not dare mention the word terrorism because it evokes images of murderous mobs in Gujarat. If we condemn Muslims who murder innocent people in the name of their religion then we have to condemn Hindus who do the same, and we have to acknowledge that what we saw on the streets of Ahmedabad and Vadodara was terrorism, and that far from being shamed by what happened Gujarat's chief minister has found it hard to conceal his glee.

Gujarat has not only made it hard for us to look ourselves in the face without cringing, it has also brought all efforts at political and economic change to a halt. Parliament is in session in which the budget is supposed to be debated. But six days were lost because the Government tried to prevent a censure motion on Gujarat that would involve a vote.

Why? Since the prime minister has made it clear that he does not blame the Gujarat Government for what happened and the home minister has congratulated Narendra Modi on controlling the situation in "72 hours", what are they afraid of?

Do they think that some of their allies in the National Democratic Alliance Government will vote against them? Have they heard the whispering and plotting that are already afoot in those corridors of power and intrigue? If they have, so what? It should make no difference to the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders since they have made it absolutely clear that the road they see ahead is lined with saffron flags and is one that takes them back to Hindutva. If this means that the NDA breaks up and the Government falls, then so be it. That is the price that will have to be paid.

Meanwhile, a general election is still more than two years away and there is still a country to run. A country of such extreme poverty that 30 per cent of its people (many of them Hindus) live on less than a dollar a day without healthcare, sanitation, housing or schools for their children. Bharat Mata may look akhand and wondrous to the ideologues of the BJP but it looks like a real mess to those of us who are not ideologically persuaded. So if the prime minister wants to keep his job-and not sacrifice it to become a fulltime RSS pracharak-he must take us beyond Gujarat.

This can only happen if a serious effort is made to rehabilitate those who are currently living in appalling conditions in filthy camps without any hope of going back to their destroyed homes or anywhere else. This must happen before a smiling, smug, self-satisfied Modi is allowed to hold elections. Only a sincere effort at rebuilding the shattered lives of the victims of violence will atone for the evil done in Gujarat and give India some of its credibility back.

The prime minister also needs to concentrate now on the economy and on such mundane matters as ensuring that the average Indian gets something resembling adequate power supply. Without electricity we may as well forget about economic growth since it is the very oxygen on which the economy breathes. If I speak about the importance of electricity with more than usual eloquence it is because I write this by candle light on a laptop that works on a battery that just died on me causing at least 400 words to disappear into the ether. So now I press "save" every couple of minutes to ensure that the same does not happen again.

The interesting thing is that I am not in some remote village in the wilderness of the Indian countryside but in central Delhi, within walking distance of the prime minister's house, and all day I have had no electricity. When I rang to complain to the Delhi Vidyut Board its officials seemed surprised.

Why was I so impatient and agitated, they asked. There was a fault and they were repairing it. These things happen, they said calmly, without realising that they should not. India is one of the few countries left in the world where the absence of electricity is taken more for granted than its regular supply, and that is only one of our problems.

We also desperately need roads, modern railways, airports, ports, schools, hospitals, sanitation and a long list of other essentials if we are to truly move into the 21st century. Hindutva offers us no solutions where any of these things are concerned, so can we save the ideological stuff for after the next general election? Can we please just have some governance this time?