Aiyar, Mani Shankar creator text xu| 2003 continuing ng p.5041-046. Does not the poor performance of Indian manufacturing under reforms have something to do with the disjunction between economic policy and the democratic polity that has become increasingly apparent over the last decade? Our reform paradigm cannot take the polity of the `Asian tigers' as its exemplar. It has to be based on the imperatives of our democratic polity. This essay pleads for panchayati raj to be made the centrepiece of the reforms process instead of the sideshow to which it has been relegated. Not until they are carried to the people through institutions of self-government at the district and sub-district levels will reforms acquire the popular momentum they need to be sustained in a democratic polity. - Reproduced. India - Economic policy Economic policy Economic and Political Weekly 180718