Such, for example, is the issue of legislating a fixed and stable term for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The virtues of stability do need to be weighed against the dilution of democracy this may denote and the undeserved protection it can offer under-representative governments. Similar caveats can be entered against the proposal to introduce a ``constructive'' vote of confidence or no-confidence in the government. There is nothing blasphemous about the reiterated idea of a commission to review the Constitution, but apprehensions about any threat to the basic features of the document do need to be addressed and allayed. There is very little reallikelihood of constitutional changes given the Congress majority in the Rajya Sabha, and the government will gain nothing by letting the review itself grow into a problem. The suggestion in the address that the draft nuclear doctrine can now be treated as approved by the nation is also debatable. The course of hastening slowly in such matters has much to commend it.

There are two parts of the address that are likely to be widely welcomed, on both of which however the new government will be called upon to prove its bona fides. The first is the promise to further the economic reforms through a series of steps, including public sector disinvestments and a restructuring of the tax system. What remains to be seen is whether these together will amount to the second-generation reforms that are even a pre-poll pledge of Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha -- and whether the package will prevail over anti-reforms pressures. The second set of pledges will recall to public mind broken promises -- on women's representationin Parliament, creation of a Lokpal, a settlement of the river water disputes and creation of three new states and full statehood to Delhi. It is the truthfulness of the government's intent that will be on test here.