India, June 22 -- A few years ago, I had the opportunity to learn first-hand how meticulous governmental scrutiny of finances can be in India. At that time, I was serving as the manager of a CBSE-affiliated school in New Delhi run by a non-governmental organisation. The Aam Aadmi Party government was in office in Delhi, and Shri Manish Sisodia was the Education Minister.

The government had insisted that private schools pay salaries and allowances to their employees in accordance with the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission. That, in itself, was not objectionable. Teachers deserve fair remuneration, and schools cannot indefinitely function by underpaying their staff.

The difficulty was that some schools, including ours, charge...