India Policy Watch #1: Ganesh Ji & Lakshmi Ji To The Rescue   Insights on domestic policy issues — RSJ Sometime last week, this newsletter marked three years of its existence. A blink of an eye in the larger scheme of things. Yet, it feels nice to have reached this milestone. Consistency might be the virtue of an ass, but it is a virtue nevertheless. In these three years, we have stayed somewhat true to our purpose in every edition we have sent out. We have analysed policies intending to anticipate their unintended consequences. We have debated about what’s good in the long term for India since we care for it. And we have tried to influence or perhaps shape the demand side of the political equation by increasing awareness about public policy among our readers. This is a marathon, and we are in it for the long run. No effort is too small. We cannot thank you enough for the generosity of your time in reading us.  Anyway, returning to one of the things we care for deeply. India’s future prospects. No amount of thinking about it could have brought us to the conclusion that Arvind Kejriwal reached last week about this vexing issue. The leader of AAP addressed a press conference where he asked the PM for a critical policy intervention: "I appeal to PM Modi that the Indian currency has the picture of Gandhi ji on one side, it should remain like that. But on the other side, there should be a picture of Ganesh ji and Laxmi ji. We need efforts to make the Indian economy stronger, but we also need the blessings of gods and goddesses," he said. While Laxmi is the goddess of prosperity, Lord Ganesh is believed to solve all our 'vighnas' (problems), Kejriwal said. "We are not asking for printing fresh currency, but all the new currency that gets printed, this should be implemented. Eventually, the circulation of these notes will increase," he said. As the yesteryear villain Ajit (“the loin”) would say: smart boy. Soon another AAP leader, Atishi, took the battle to the BJP camp: “BJP leaders can hate Mr. Kejriwal but why hate Hindu deities Lakshmi and Ganesh? Do you not want the blessings of our gods to be with the people of the country? I humbly request leaders of the BJP not to oppose this noble proposal. It is not just a proposal from Arvind Kejriwal, but is the proposal of 130-crore citizens of this country.” I don’t remember when I (among them aforementioned 130-crore citizenry) signed up for this proposal, as Atishi suggested. There’s something to be said about how times change people. A person whose last name ‘Marlena’ was derived from her family’s belief in the Marxist-Leninist strand of godless communism is now asking for deities to be put on currency notes as a policy measure. I guess this is how things roll in politics. Keeping an open mind, I looked around for evidence correlating having Lakshmi Ji and Ganesh Ji on currency notes with economic growth anywhere in the world. I didn’t make much headway. No developed nation has ever had them on its notes. Indonesia did issue 20,000 Rupiah notes from 1998-2005 with Ganesh Ji on them, but it was discontinued in 2008. The Indonesian economic growth during those intervening years was nothing to write about. I also came across a few Devdutt Pattnaik videos on Lakshmi Ji and yajman and how the yajman must make sure she doesn’t leave them. Very compelling stuff. Considering he was with the Future group during those days and it has since gone into bankruptcy, I’m not sure it helped much there too. The bottom line, there isn’t a lot of academic literature out there to help with the Kejriwal thesis. The AAP move has spawned numerous opinion pieces, of course. Some have accused them of soft Hindutva (a unique Indian term like ‘mild lathicharge’) and being a ‘B team’ of the BJP. Others have lamented the loss of idealism in politics. And then some think it is the pragmatic way for Kejriwal to turn the tables on the BJP and nothing more should be re