India, July 23 -- Last Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Jalandhar and inaugurated rail and road infrastructure worth over Rs.5,470 crore - 75 redeveloped Amrit Bharat stations, a new Punjab-Himachal rail line, and highway stretches, including sections of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway. The Centre's development commitment to Punjab, he said, does not depend on who governs the state - a tangible demonstration of what double-engine coordination delivers: capital deployed, projects completed, and connectivity that lowers the cost of moving Punjab's wheat, rice, and industrial output to market.

But a railway station, however well redeveloped, cannot by itself rescue a state from compounding crises. Punjab, once India's bea...