Viksit Bharat by 2047, by all appearances, looks like presentational politics. It envisages a per capita income of $14,000 for India at current prices (the per capita income of a developed country now) by the target date. Many will find it to be more a future-tense alibi than a genuine governance commitment. When a five-fold increase in the gross domestic product is being promised over the next 22 years, it is assumed that political establishment in power today will steward it through the intervening period. In a democratic polity, the audacity of such a vision is premised on continuation of the ruling dispensation for the period without change of guard. A pie in the sky as a political promissory note is not only rhetorical mirage, it is also a promise beyond the democratic audit and an accountability proof promise. How can a ruling dispensation be so confident about continuing in perpetuity? Either it is a function of promissory illusion, that the ruling dispensation is trying to create or they are confident about the electoral arithmetic election after election. Democracy is based upon people’s verdict, which ordinarily changes from election to election as per the performance of the incumbent in the meantime. A total change-proofing of elections is based on confidence to control the electoral outcome regardless of performance, policy and their failures. It can happen when the process of the election, from the electoral roll to voting and counting, are entirely under one’s control rather than under an impartial referee. Otherwise, the moniker “Viksit Bharat” can be debunked as an electoral futurism without audit. But it is much more than that and that is what this piece is all about. Warts here refer to the capture of institutions, the silence of the court system, dubious sanitisation of electoral rolls and doubts about the role of EVMs. Electoral autocracies also tend to continue returning the same party without break. The sheer behaviour showing that it is a work in progress 20 years ahead of the target date, without the slightest attempt to set governance initiatives towards periodic milestones, is at least disconcerting. Structural gaps beneath the GDP storyEventually, optimism is not a plan or a strategy. If structural cracks are evident, a concurrent effort to address them will indicate seriousness. The system shows that hundreds of millions of people are still trapped in the informal economy. At least 12 million people join the job market every year, but jobs are not there. The GDP gloss cannot be a veneer over structural cracks. India is showing decent growth, though much less than the rock-star performance required. Manufacturing, which is the only ticket for the poor to climb into the middle class, has decelerated from 16% to 13.5%.The unemployment rate is a staggering 9.2% (CMIE data), with unemployment at 27.5% in the 15-29 age group and female unemployment at 40%. That is on top of is India’s disguised unemployment. Capital-intensive industries are creating jobless growth, but mid-sized manufacturing, which can employ millions, remains the missing middle. The global share of such industries in textile, footwear and leather markets has come down from 4.5% of GDP in 2013 to 3.5% in 2022, even as countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Mexico have encashed on the boom of industrialisation in these sectors.Added to this, India’s much-vaunted IT sector is facing existential challenge from generative AI, with entry-level jobs likely to vanish. The so-called demographic dividends are to be harvested in the next 20 years or it becomes demographic disaster. The former hugely depends on quality education, quality healthcare and quality jobs. India is failing in all three fronts with 90% of engineering graduates and 29% of polytechnic graduates being ‘unemployable‘. We do not spot any effort to correct the trend. Recent Cockroach Janta Part-led agitation highlighted this systemic and economic distress. The comfort of illusionEqually disturbing is the lack of questions and curiosity from the press, academics, thinkers and think-tanks. Instead, the latest trend is to hold seminars and symposiums on “Viksit Bharat” to imbue it with the gravitas of a real development pathway, probably generously funded by the government and their affiliates. Do these people really believe that it is not “smoke and mirrors”? Why do they do so despite “Viksit Bharat” having all the attributes of a political vapourware? How can people withhold their questions and curiosity and plunge into a willing suspension of disbelief?The answer lies in the kind of dystopia we are in. Orwellian dystopian world was ruled by force; surveillance cameras, thought police hunting dissent and history rewritten daily by whoever held power. But it was visible and visibility is what makes resistance possible. On the contrary, Aldous Huxley’s dystopia had citizens distracted, comfortable in thought surrendering their freedom, not under threat but willingly. In this world, truth is drowned in irrelevance and noise. This love for endless amusement and belief in pep talk makes us embrace outlandish claims. Comfortable in the unreality of a promised heaven’s gate, our curiosity is drowned in the distraction of propaganda. This is where citizens come to believe in sheer promissory illusion and feel comfortable with it rather than questioning it. Slogan without substanceSupport for crony capitalists has meant competition in their preferred sectors is not being encouraged. Compliance requirements of small and mid-sized industries have gone up simultaneously, with the added dampener of prosecution for most infractions. Investments are unlikely to flow in when the environment is so claustrophobic. No wonder high-net worth individuals (HNIs) in thousands have left India, taking with them $26 billion last year by an account, which could have created investments and employment. In essence, while “Viksit Bharat” remains a strong slogan, the counterpart governance commitment is no where to be seen. We only see garbled signals. This is the crux of the Viksit Bharat chimera. The dream peddled is bad enough, but worse still is the willingness of most to believe this rhetorical mirage, built on the politics of temples and statues. Satya Mohanty is former education secretary, government of India. Views expressed are personal.