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        There is an endemic feeling that governance is muddling through with the penchant for ad hocism which, observers say , is its basic strategy for survival. It will be accepted on all hands that the lack of direction is injurious to the health of the polity.

        True, coalitions have always their push and pull but, when partners in it pull in different directions, the layman is justified in thinking that such coalitions had better collapse than making a mockery of administration, more so when those supporting it from outside call the shots.

        The added misery is that the Cabinet talks in contrarious voices with one Minister denying what another says. When, for instance, the Petroleum Minister says that the gas price tangle has been resolved, the External Affairs Minister denies that it is so.

        This apart from Ministers talking beyond brief or with no brief or at cross purposes which undermines the credibility of the Cabinet of which they are members. Also, the regime is under the compulsion to prevent emergence of subnationalism by bowing to regional chauvinism.

        To all intents and purposes, the government claims to be respecting norms of globalisation but, in the area of economic reforms, it is a poor performer. In the first two years, reforms held out great promise which was consistently belied thereafter.

        There is no holistic approach to any problem. Precisely why agriculture languished and suicide by farmers rubbished whatever reputation the government had as ordering the priorities of a welfare State. This makes for reservations about the competence of its welfare programmes.

        The achievements of this regime as well as those of its predecessor consisted in nothing more than sloganeering. 'India shining' and 'India rising' are empty war cries of governments beleaguered by internal dissension and external pressure.

        More distressing is lack of honesty. It has become a tradition for leaders to oppose , when out of office, the very programmes they had favoured when in office. Consequently, unlike as is the case with mature polities, the Indian polity is not trusted to be consistent in its reflexes.

        Separation of powers is diligently obfuscated by the executive losing its patience with what it terms as judicial activism and the legislature being intent on amending the Constitution when its unrighteous demands are shot down by judicial verdicts.

        Above all, corruption is so deep rooted that muscle power and money that reinforces it have promoted criminalisation of politics facilitating the mafia and furthering the interests of rich people. That is how undeclared fiefdoms of poltical heavyweights have emerged to the chagrin of honest people.