The integration of the princely states smoothly within about two years of independence was the greatest achievement of Vallabhbhai Patel. But under the prime ministership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, India is slowly but steadily moving towards disintegration. On the eve of independence, there were nearly 600 princely states ruled bymaharajas, rajas and nawabs. It was assumed that the process of their integration would take several years to complete. But under the dynamic leadership of Patel, deputy prime minister and minister of states, assisted by V.P. Menon, a brilliant bureaucrat, the secretary of the states ministry, the ministry worked with amazing speed and efficiency and produced remarkable results. But, under the leadership of Vajpayee, fissiparous forces are vigorously asserting themselves in various parts of the country. The creation of Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand as separate states has given a fillip to the demand for the creation of more states like Telengana, Vidharbha, Gorkhaland and Bodoland. The states of Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh have been formed mainly on political, parochial and personal considerations. No expert studies have been made about their viability from financial and administrative angles. Even now, many state governments have been unable to conduct their administration with reasonable efficiency. Tongue tied As a result, the development of agriculture, industry and infrastructure has been sadly and systematically neglected, aggravating the problems of poverty and regional disparities. In recent years, many states have been pursuing policies of discrimination towards citizens of other states in matters of employment and admission to educational institutions. Linguistic chauvinism has received a big boost. But English is the language of international trade, commerce, science, tourism and sports. It is the mother tongue of most people of the United States, and the main second language of millions of people in south Asia and other countries. It is, of course, essential for Indians to develop their mother tongue as well as the national language. But it will be suicidal to eliminate the use of English, thereby severely retarding the country's educational and economic progress. But this is what several state governments are now doing. Vajpayee himself does not seem to have a proper appreciation of the crucial role of English as a world language. He addressed the joint session of Parliament in Hindi in the presence of the US president, Bill Clinton. He also spoke to the United Nations general assembly in New York in Hindi when he went there as minister for external affairs some years ago. Small business The fiscal policy of many state governments has been framed in such a way as to deprive the people of India of the opportunity of doing business in the vast Indian market as a whole. Many small countries in Europe have lately been showing a tendency to come closer to one another so that they can derive substantial bene-fits by the free movement of commodities. But in India, state governments have been making it increasingly difficult for Indian and foreign businessmen to set up new industries, expand and modernize the existing ones and set up new units. This was clearly highlighted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry, in a study released in May this year. It held: 'The unification of India as a single national economy is hindered by the diversity of control by multiple authorities at different levels, restrictions on inter-state (sometimes even inter-district) movement of goods, non-uniformity in standards laid down by different authorities and agencies, and taxes imposed at different rates in different states. These manifold restrictions and controls have served to break up the vast Indian market into a large number of small regional markets.' Assocham added: 'The artificial barriers to domestic trade have distorted the locational balance of industries, raised production costs relative to foreign producers and reduced the country's attractiveness as a destination for direct investment.'