In the 1960s and 70s, a poor monsoon could spark an economic and political crisis in the country. It no longer has the same impact.
The monsoon has failed. Rainfall was 12.6% below normal. In earlier decades, this would have spelt economic calamity and perhaps a political earthquake. Today, it will mean higher inflation, farm distress in some areas, and TV shots of cracked earth. But it will be just a speed bump for the overall economy and politics too.
I became a journalist in 1965, when India suffered the first of two successive droughts. Foodgrain production crashed, inflation soared, and India survived on American food aid. “Ship-to-mouth” India was a humiliating reality. Those were traumatic years.