New Delhi, Aug. 16 -- The Delhi Gymkhana Club's fight with the Union government has now missed three hearing dates, pushed to September 3 after the government's reply reached the club's lawyers only the night before the last one. It is easy to read this as a real-estate story, or a culture-war argument about erasing colonial leftovers. I think it is more useful to read it as a test of what India chooses to spend its attention on, at a moment when the global economy is being remade by artificial intelligence, semiconductor competition, and a scramble to re-route supply chains.

The government's case rests on two grounds that are not quite the same thing. One is security: the club sits close to the Prime Minister's residence on Lok Kalyan M...