We have left behind a time when a political crony coined the crude acme of sycophancy: 'Indira is India'. But we still have a prime minister who can roar that he will 'dismiss' a state government if it were found to be taking 'an anti-national direction'. Among the hopes kindled in certain quarters when Rajiv Gandhi took over as prime minister in December 1984 was that he would establish a new relationship between the centre and the states. And it is here that his political failure has been most sadly profound.