In a book on Rajiv Gandhi, Mani Shankar Aiyar writes how the former PM modernised gram panchayats

I am privileged to have been associated intimately with the evolution and implementation of Panchayati Raj from the time of Rajiv Gandhi to the present. Apart from my work as a civil servant in drafting the constitutional amendments that were eventually numbered 73rd and 74th and included in the Constitution as Parts IX (“The Panchayats”) and IXA (“The Municipalities”) (the longest and most detailed amendments made to the Constitution since its proclamation in 1950), I worked on the passage of the amendments through Parliament (1991-92) and for more than a decade (1993-2003) both on the floor of the Lok Sabha and in the Joint Select Committee (1991-92), in both the Parliament Standing Committee for Rural Development (which dealt with Panchayat Raj) as well as from the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (1991-2003) which prioritised the subject under a committee chaired by D Bandyopadhyaya, former rural development secretary and later member of the Rajya Sabha.

On behalf of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, and in consultation with the Bandyopadhyaya committee, I prepared a draft Action Plan and then undertook a journey around the country addressing over forty Congress conventions seeking endorsement of the draft, which drew from Sonia Gandhi, the President of the Congress, the...

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