Modi
Government's stress
INCLUSIVE APPROACH FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH
By
Amba Charan Vashishth
Governance is the key to a good
administration. The malady of our governments in the past has been that we had
a bloated government but a weak apparatus for governance. The then Finance
Minister in the Manmohan Singh government, Mr. P. Chidambaram, had himself once
admitted that the malady of the UPA government lay in “governance deficit”. The
government allowed the administration to drift. It seemed to believe that it
need not have to act. It allowed the problems and issues to drift in the hope
that in the course of time these will find their own solution.
But it is not so with the new BJP-led NDA
government of Mr. Narendra Modi who has decided to take head on the problems
and the issues confronting the nation. He doesn’t wish to take chances. He
wishes to himself work and make his colleagues to lend him their helping hand
to work out solutions.
Shri Modi convened a second meeting of his
cabinet in just three days of his being sworn in. He exhorted his ministers to
chalk out a 100-day agenda with focus on efficient governance, delivery and
implementation of programmes. He wants to make the decision making process fast
and an inclusive affair by giving priority to the issues highlighted by the
States and the MPs crucial to the country’s development. As against the
previous government where Ministers of State complained of having no work to
perform, Shri Modi has asked cabinet ministers to assign work to their junior
ministers All these steps were in line with the PM’s 10-point vision
which primarily involved increasing investment, completing infrastructure
projects in a time-bound manner and exploiting the natural resources for the
country’s benefit with the issues like the price rise, agriculture and women
safety remaining in the priority zone.
Shri Modi does not believe, like his
predecessors, in sweeping away to the dust bin the programmes of the previous
government he inherited. He has decided to take forward these rotting for want
of action and decision.
.
From his experience Shri Modi is aware that
implementing a decision is much more vital than framing a policy however
beneficial to the people it may be.
Similarly, a programme or policy needs to
be implemented with no less intensity of the spirit with which it is
formulated. A faulty and corrupt implementation may take out the very life and
spirit of a welfare programme.
That is why Shri Modi wishes to take along
not only the political class but also the bureaucracy.
To inject a sense of belonging to the
bureaucracy in the formation and implementation of a policy, Shri Modi made a
new beginning by meeting and speaking to administrative secretaries of more
than 75 ministries on June 4. He was displaying his zeal to generate a
“positive environment” in administration. He has given a lie to the
general perception among the political class that babudom is a hindrance to the
realisation of dreams of the government in power. He sent out a positive signal
to the bureaucray that in his scheme of things its role is central to implement
his agenda of “minimum government and maximum governance”. This gesture has
infused such a positive signal that a senior secretary is reported to have
commented: “”It was a different experience. For four years, we had gotten used
to the idea of even someone like the Cabinet Secretary not having the time to
spare for secretaries, forget about the Prime Minister”. Added another
secretary: "Ït was a pleasant change. One came away with the feeling that
he (Modi) means business and has the ability to take important decisions".
The Industrial Policy and Promotion
Secretary Amitabh Kant was so impressed that he tweeted: First time in my
career frank and fearless interaction with the Prime Minister of the country.
Highly motivating, great flow of ideas.
But some people are trying to read something wrong in this positive
gesture of the PM. Some have interpreted it as undermining the position of the
ministers when secretaries meet the PM directly. It makes no difference as long
as the bridges of communication between the three organs — the secretary, the
minister and the Prime Minister — are kept alive. The problem will arise only
when egos clash. And a conflict of egos never augurs well for anybody, high or
low, in any situation.
Even if an idea directly propounded by a
secretary clicks with the PM, it can ultimately come to fruition only in
consultation with the minister concerned. Moreover, it is a normal practice
that in the event of a difference of opinion between a secretary and a minister
on any issue, the matter goes to the prime minister (chief minister in a
State) for final decision and if necessary, it can land in the council of
ministers' court even.
The doubts
being aired that the bureaucracy will rule the roost overriding the ruling
class are misplaced. unfounded and far-fetched. If under Shri Modi this could
not happen in Gujarat, it can never occur in Delhi too. ***
