India, June 17 -- India's auto policy debate has a familiar flaw: it loves grand objectives and then settles for blunt instruments. If the goal is cleaner air, lower emissions and a faster transition to better mobility, then a graded GST structure on vehicles is far more sensible than pretending every technology deserves the same treatment. The tax system should reward the vehicles that pollute less in the real world, not the ones that merely look cleaner on a certification sheet.

That is the core problem with the current debate. We keep talking about electric vehicles as though they are the only answer, hybrids as though they are a compromise, and conventional vehicles as though they are the enemy. Reality is messier. India is not going...