Governance Now is a believer in the idea of India. Like a billion of us, the ideals of your young magazine+website sit on the foundations of a strong nation.

It thus required courage to raise a fundamental question about the #IndiaStory you see in the headline. This, we propose, should be our theme throughout Budget Day – a “hashtag” we shall use on Twitter (@governancenow) as the recurring theme in the content. With this, we are hoping to engage each one of you in a meaningful conversation.

This means we won’t just be pumping links of stories your editors and columnists write; we will seek you out proactively. Our senior editors will even RT you, something that’s still a rarity in the mainstream media.

The questions about the #IndiaStory must be asked now more than ever since the economic reforms were unleashed – under compulsion, of course - in 1991.

Rampant political marauding has left our great country at a cusp that separates her tryst with destiny and the trajectory of a declining power.

No one knows this mroe than P Chidambaram. On his 68-year-old shoulders lies the responsibility of staving off the obvious pressures that this year’s budget be a populist one. That there will be other occasions to win back investors; this is the time to win an election.

Like millions of right-thinking Indians, we believe that the time of waffling between “voter” and “investor” is a no-brainer. But our constituency needs to consolidate itself. #IndiaStory is a step in this direction. It is this conversation that must transcend platforms and politics; tokenism and trivia!

With a sub-5 percent rate of growth, we have anarchy at our doorstep. Any further let up in deficits, and any more recklessness with our sovereign rating, is recipe for a melt down; the #IndiaStory going down the tube.

Remember, great power status isn’t any nation’s birthright. It comes when an entire generation – sometimes, two - make/s hard choices. Somewhere, we’ve stopped making them.

These are extraordinary times, they represent a moment that comes but once in history. The way the global economy is turning turtle, internal reform is the only lever that we have.

So, we hope Chidambaram has the fire in his belly to think only of India. Not the Congress, or the UPA, or even a clever balancing act, but simply India.

Politically, Chidambaram is still pretty young for Indian politics. He’s just 68 and has a stake in steering the country from a cross road. He’s on a wicket that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, then 27, found himself on, under the ageing Anil Kumble in end-2008. Despite the chorus for Rahul Gandhi, it may be Chidambaram who might be the selector’s choice for the mahout’s job; coming in like Dhoni had to for Kumble, mid-series in November 2008 against the formidable Aussies.

Be that as it may, this year’s budget speech on Thursday - the eighth in PC’s career - will show if he is that mahout. Or is he a mere FM perched on the Indian elephant, his ears full with the chorus of mediocrity, his hook blunted by near-term ambition? [On this count, don't miss: Will the real Chidambaram please stand up?]

All of February 28 – and beyond – we’ll like to hear you on whether the pachyderm carrying 1.2 billion of us can find its way back in the storm.

So, here’s the poser: Will Chidambaram rise beyond a verse in Tamil, a volley of stats, a clever joke, and a distracting gambit? Or should we hope these words of Allama Iqbal emerge truer than they do as the FM rises to speak at 11:

Yunan-o-Misar-o-Roma Sab Mit Gye Jahan Se
Ab Tak Magar Hai Baqi Naam-o-Nishan Humara
-Iqbal

There hangs the #IndiaStory.

So, dear reader, join us and share. We’re all ears. If you are loud enough, we can make the entire polity hear us.