Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices and the date was September 18, 2004.

I don’t possess a complete database of speeches delivered by the PM during UPA-I. But as far as I can make out, Dr Singh mentioned the word “governance” 255 times in speeches delivered during UPA-I and the expression “administrative reforms” 48 times. If this is any indication of importance, these are high-priority reform items.

Both governance and administrative reforms are huge canvases, the second less so than the first. Therefore, there are different strands to reforms too and there are also Centre/ state issues. Having said that, is public governance (corporate governance is different) in 2009 better than in 2004? Will the answer change if the impact of RTI is excluded? Notwithstanding the euphoria about e-governance and the 12 reports submitted by the ARC during UPA-I, how much has changed? How about administrative reforms and civil service reforms as a subset of those? Contrast recommendations (not implementation) of the Sixth Pay Commission with those of the fifth and re-read the recommendations of the afore-mentioned 2001, 2003 and 2004 commissions/ committees.

The Left can legitimately be blamed for several things, but not on this count. At least, the Left didn’t hold things up at the Centre, regardless of what it did in West Bengal. Is talking about something (even at PM-level) any guarantee of implementation? George Santayana’s The Life of Reason has often been quoted and paraphrased for “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”, though it’s unclear whether this should apply to the government or India’s citizens. However, the same volume also said, “Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.” And that’s worth mulling over.

... contd.