FOCUS POLITICS Rasananda Panda
Ministers and bureaucrats are playing extra safe by pushing the files to PMO. In this game of wait and watch, India is losing the crucial time
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BLURB
The BJP came to power riding a negative wave towards UPA -II but are not having any concrete agenda as regards its priorities. The new team of ministers lack professional advice as they never cultivated any earlier
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Come May 26, the Narendra Modi sarkar would complete one year in the office. With close to 400billion dollar – greater than the size of Thailand economy — of infrastructure projects stalled at the end of the last fiscal as per the government data, there is ample truth in the views that the present government’s economic policy-making is directionless and ad hoc, as was commented by a senior figure recently about the ‘trinity’ (Modi-Jaitly-Amit Shah) running the government.
If it was a pen-down during UPA 2, then now it is pass-the-buck. With close to 5,600 files pending in PMO, one wonders what the 350-odd staff in the PMO is doing. Government functionaries are really worried that the decisions they take could draw flak from Modi and therefore are playing safe and their inaction is slowing down New Delhi’s efforts towards reviving the growth in Asia’s third largest economy. Now, every file, even if as petty as the finalisation of appointment of joint secretaries to allocating cadre to probationers, runs through the PMO, as is reported. Add to that, the high-level appointments like Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), directors to IIMs, IITs, VCs of Central Universities, PSUs etc are pending for long. An interesting one is of finding a replacement for RP Singh — NHAI chairman who was on his way out because of his series of run-ins with his minister Nitin Gadkari; and how the minister, the department secretary, and the PMO each preferring their own candidate to head this important road regulator.
It is thus widely believed that there is less coordination now between PMO and the ministries. The files cross over many a time because the age-old rudimentary practice of tracking the files has become unwieldy. There are repeats all over and funnily, it is rumoured that in certain cases the PMO seeks notes on the subjects already discussed and replied to by the concerned ministries.
Not just bureaucrats but ministers — especially those who are handling important ministries given to them with independent charge are having similar predicament. Earlier, ministers knew what exactly were expected from them during their meetings with PM or in the cabinet meetings as the agenda used to be circulated earlier and officials of the ministries used to provide their inputs to ministers. They were well-prepared for the meetings. But, after the reported espionage activities in some of the ministries, now the practice of circulating hard copies are being done away with to prevent such leaks. Instead, ministers are provided with tablets and the soft copies of the notes. This, in a way, may lead to a paperless governance but at the same time gives upper hand to PMO, in knowing the agenda before hand and making it more prepared than the ministries, and thus paving the way for highhandedness or too much of centralisation by PMO.
Therefore, understandably, ministers and bureaucrats are playing extra safe by pushing the files to PMO. In this game of wait and watch, India is losing the crucial time. Looked from another angle, does the PMO have the required expertise as regards all the matters pertaining to all the ministries? Definitely not, and this in a way lengthens the decision-making at the highest level as evident from the number of files pending in PMO.
Sample this: It took seven months for this government to approve financial support to private companies to use imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) for producing electricity which otherwise could have been announced within no time as the required groundwork was already in place and would have the first one to be announced by this government. Another one: it is being perceived that Modi and his PMO hold up the decision in the civil aviation ministry on the much-debated requirement of having at least 20 aircraft and carry out operations for five years before being allowed to operate on overseas routes for the existing airlines. This would have been one among the top priorities of the government as many airlines are keenly waiting to fly to the neighbouring countries. But nothing has happened in this direction.
Similarly, the conflicting signals that the finance ministry is giving during the year as regards various income tax proposals, MAT, are a case in point. Here, the government wants less governance and more work, but has not set out a clear agenda as to medium-to-long-term measures towards economic policy -making. The tokenisms are clearly visible in the Union Budget of 2015-16 in the form of populist schemes being announced at the cost of reducing allocations towards the welfare schemes hitherto in place.
The curtailment in the role of RBI towards debt management is another move where the government wants to use carrot and stick to manage government debt which is largely due to state governments. One can easily see the imprint of PMO in the budget as evident from announcement of so many populist schemes with symbolism such as PMJDY. Therefore, there is a growing perception now that this government is yet to come to terms with the work it was meant to do.
The BJP came to power riding a negative wave towards UPA -II but are not having any concrete agenda as regards its priorities. The new team of ministers lack professional advice as they never cultivated any earlier. The recent moves such as organinsing meetings at PM’s residence (now called as Panchavati) with departmental secretaries (second one held April 1) and initiating the practice of PMO having video conferencing with the state chief secretaries once in a month towards fastening the process of decision-making is seen more as attempts at centralisation of power. This becomes more evident the way in which the PM has been manning his castle with his own legionaries, largely drawn from Gujarat, who have had their principles fortified at Modi’s school of governance.
