The announcement that the United Progressive Alliance will reconstitute the National Advisory Council under Ms Sonia Gandhi has not come a day too soon. The original NAC died a premature death primarily because Ms Gandhi quit it and also resigned her Lok Sabha seat in the wake of the office-of-profit controversy. Her long absence from the NAC deprived it of its authority. Now that the law has been amended to exempt the NAC from the scope of offices-of-profit, it’s entirely appropriate that the Council be formed again to counsel the UPA on fulfilling its promise—made before the 2004 general elections, and reiterated in 2009—to bring about “inclusive growth” in which the aam aadmi has a vital stake

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