Sitaram Yechuri needs a muzzle. When your alliance has just about got into power, when you don’t know who is supporting this from the inside and who is supporting it from the outside, when you know that the markets are already jittery about the left having a say in the government – you don’t go around making statements like the Ministry of Disinvestments should be abolished. Unless you are completely daft.

The markets predictably tumbled. Sometimes, discretion is the better part of effective policy.