This week, Amit Shah, who was appearing before chief ministers of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa in Panaji, was not just creating a slogan for the 28th meeting of the Western Zonal Council, but he was also giving a new meaning to the western seaboard's slogan.This week, as Amit Shah appeared before chief ministers of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa in Panaji, he was not just creating a slogan for the 28th meeting of Western Zonal Council, but he was also giving a new meaning to the western seaboard's slogan. But the words have some weight within the context of a 1.4bn-people nation whose states are as uneven as they can be, even if the political layering in which they've been wrapped offers a more critical interpretation.

With the headline number repeatedly called out by Shah, India's economy grew 7.8 percent in the April-June quarter of this fiscal year, outperforming the Reserve Bank's own projection of 7 percent and also keeping ahead of the majority of private estimates, including the poll estimate from the Economic Times of 7.3 percent. It came against a real tough external environment, as crude prices continued to rise and supply chains were disturbed by the current crisis in West Asia during the quarter, but manufacturing growth was 9 percent, capital goods manufacturing increased by over 15 percent and capital expenditure by the Centre, states and the public sector firms increased by nearly 17 percent. Nominal GDP grew by 10.3 percent to reach around ₹81.4 lakh crore while real GDP stood at approximately ₹75.5 lakh crore a year ago. This is according to economists at India Ratings and Bank of Baroda, who see India following in an unusual pattern of four successive years above the 7% growth rate for most large economies in the world.

What about the western block in all of that? The contribution of Maharashtra is about 13.5 per cent of the Indian GDP at current prices, which is the single largest state contribution in the country followed by Gujarat with 8 per cent. The area controlled by the Shah is home to a financial, industrial and port power which no other region in India boasts. Mumbai, the country's financial capital, continues to be undeniably a place for financial transactions and is becoming a financial centre where global capital flows travel to.

The Mundra Port of Gujarat is the largest port by volume of cargo handled and the neighbouring Deendayal Port is the largest port by tonnage capacity. Shah's roadmap for the WEST wealth and finance, exports and ports, start-ups, semiconductors, tourism, and the blue economy corresponds reasonably with the investments being made by the two states in these sectors over the last ten years: from the financial services initiative at GIFT City to the new semiconductor fabrication plants being established in Gujarat under the central government's incentive scheme.

In absolute terms Goa's contribution to this equation is small, but disproportionately effective. Shah pointed out that the state attracts over one crore tourists every year, including about five lakh foreign tourists, and the contribution of tourism is about 16 per cent of the Goa's gross state domestic product a level of dependence that's not seen by many other states in India, either good or bad, when the world goes out of vogue for tourism.

But the political overhanging these statistics is the part that deserves attention. Shah's assertion that there were no more disputes among the states of the Western Region is the strongest possible statement given in an environment where inter-state conflicts involving water sharing, revenue devolution and migrant labour flows tend to be renegotiated or postponed, not resolved.

The fact that the number of sessions for Zonal Councils has increased by almost threefold since 2014, from 25 to 71, could just as well be interpreted as a sign that there are more issues that need to be tackled, rather than fewer. It is noteworthy that the council has been able to shift the focus of its current agenda to "monitoring" instead of dispute resolution, as the issues of the council's compensation claims at the GST arena, water sharing issues in the Narmada basin and the periodic simmering disputes between Maharashtra and Gujarat over industrial investment poaching are all issues that have come up in these same forums in recent years.

The celebratory rhetoric also ignores one important structural issue: that regional inequality will grow as a result of growth in a few already rich states, even as the national average rises. Top five states (western and southern combined) contribute almost 48 per cent of India's total economic output, while large populous states in the north still lag on per capita basis. The west is indeed the "engine" of the Indian economy, and this is a fact that is supported by the statistics; however, this implicitly acknowledges that a significant proportion of Indians reside in states operating slower than the pace set by that engine and this has been somewhat improved by both federal transfers and Zonal Council coordination.

None of this chips away at the economic substance of what we got done this quarter. Despite the lack of a timely monsoon, agriculture saw growth of 3.6 percent, industrial production saw multi-quarter highs and the contribution of western states in ports, finance and now semiconductor manufacturing is not political spin; it appears in actual trade activity and investment flows that long predate this particular meeting. What is required at this moment is a separation between the two stories: the growth story and the governance story. One is supported by national statistics offices and independent economists. The other is a political package of federal harmony that history shows is typically more temporary than the claimed victories assert.