MR Atal Behari Vajpayee's response to his party's crushing defeat in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh was both politically and constitutionally the right one. It was constitutionally right because, as he reminded the people, elections for state assemblies cannot be treated as referenda on the central government without destroying the power of the latter to govern, and thereby undermining the Indian State. It was politically correct because by appointing three new ministers over the objections of some of his alliance partners, all from the moderate and forward-looking segment of his party, he signalled his determination not to go into a defensive shell and to address the most important issues of governance that face the nation. But if his government is to survive the shock of the defeats, this must be the beginning of its response and not the end. To frame the right response, it needs to understand what went wrong.