Fifth Column turns 20 this year, which makes me a ‘veteran’ political pundit, and this scary thought occasionally puts me in a reflective mood. Like other ‘veterans’ I gaze backwards at the years gone by and the changes that have happened since this column first appeared in the pages of this newspaper in 1987.

The prime ministers who have come and gone, the politicians who have disappeared into history’s footnotes, and the economic changes that have turned India in 20 years from a poor, developing country into an emerging economy. As I am writing this piece on a perfect, early summer’s day, with the sounds and scents of birds and gardens wafting up to my humble abode, and in a week when the most compelling news event was Liz Hurley’s Rajasthani wedding, I feel I can indulge my reflective mood.

I was travelling and there was that board I passed at a toll gate on a national highway listing in big letters the number of ‘dignitaries’ exempted from paying toll to use the road: the president, the prime minister, governors, chief ministers, cabinet ministers, foreign dignitaries and so on. It’s a long list and it reminded me of how far we still have to travel before we grow up as a country. In countries that have become mature democracies, ‘dignitaries’ make it a public point to pay toll so that they can lead by example. They do not waste taxpayers money putting up annoying lists of exempted ‘dignitaries’.

... contd.