MOHAN GURUSWAMY: When Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister, on the very first day he declared that the topmost priority of his government was to reform the bureaucracy. Narendra Modi said exactly the same thing when he became Prime Minister. We are still waiting. India pays the price for their inability or unwillingness to seize the bull by its horns. India, as one state, has never been larger. Like Ashoka’s great empire, the Mughal Empire never went down southwards and eastwards very much. The British ruled directly only in the three great presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay and the four smaller units of the Punjab, the United Provinces, the Central Provinces and Berar, and the Northwest Frontier Provinces. Even after the doctrine of lapse was repudiated 601 princely states remained administering themselves and managing their day-to-day affairs quite independently, as long as Britain was acknowledged as the paramount power in India. The India of today is also much mor...