Early this week, one of the senior-most state bureaucrats in Gandhinagar Sachivalaya was suddenly summoned by Gujarat chief secretary AK Joti for an urgent meeting on scarcity conditions prevailing in the state. Sitting in his chamber, I innocently wondered whether there was any urgency. Ruefully, this bureaucrat, who would make tall claims for being “close” to chief minister Narendra Modi, angrily told me, before moving out of the room, “This will be another long meeting without substance. The entire district-level administration has collapsed. Everyone is busy with Modi’s melas and yatras, which he has been undertaking across Gujarat with an eye on December assembly elections. Nobody has time for anything else, least of all for helping people suffering from scarcity conditions. Be it district collector or district development officer, mamlatdar or taluka development officer, or even the village talati, all speak nothing but melas and yatras. Very few have any idea of the situation pr