A January 23 news item to the effect that a Gujarati-Indian family of four including two children, froze to death in sub-zero temperatures on the Canada-US border while attempting to illegally migrate to the US, has been reported in a surprisingly matter-of-fact manner in Indian media. As an inevitable accident.

Yet the elephantine question that neither academia egg-heads, establishment worthies nor the country’s stone-hearted middle class prospering in a desert of poverty seems to be confronting, is why so many Indians — including some uber rich — are so desperate to get out of this country? Especially when according to our bully-boy political leaders and tub-thumping supra nationalists, contemporary India is the world’s most well-governed and high-potential — sare jahan se acchha — country?

Addressing this elephantine question, it’s pertinent to note that the demised citizens mentioned above were of the Gujarati — India’s most entrepreneurial — community. There’s high probability that they wanted to migrate to the US to quickly start a small business and prosper modestly, an anti-social aspiration, according to our brahminic establishment pundits.

Writing in the New Indian Express (January 9), economist-author Shankkar Aiyar reveals that even in post-liberalisation India, “entrepreneurs are haunted by 1,500 laws and over 69,000 compliances to follow”. Time the timorous middle class spoke up for liberalisation!

Also read: Number of Indian students in UK grew by 52% between 2019-21: Study