Power back with Prime Minister's office
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets the audience before delivering a speech during a business event in Tokyo Tuesday. (Photo: AP)
New Delhi: Many believe that the greatest achievement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first 100 days in office is that he successfully restored supremacy and authority of the Prime Minister’s Office, which is a clear departure from his predecessor Manmohan Singh during whose tenure not only decisions were left to the ministerial panels like EGoMs and GoMs but also individual ministries used functions like “personal fiefdom” of respective ministers.
After assuming power the first notification of the government establishing council of ministers laid the foundation of an authoritative Prime Minister and the PMO, as it said, the Prime Minister, besides being in-charge of several ministries not allocated to anybody, will be responsible for “all important policy issues”. “Though in the Cabinet system of government the Prime Minister always has the pivotal role, but with such a notification it was made clear to all that the PMO will have overriding role in deciding every policy matter and can even initiate any proposal,” an oldtimer in the government said.
The next were his decisions to dismantle all the Empowered Groups of Ministers and Groups of Ministers and also “insignificant” committees of the Cabinet like one on UIDAI, which were the legacy of the coalition era.
The EGoMs and GoMs were dismantled to improve governance and delivery, which also restored the authority and the supremacy of the PMO, with the Prime Minister having the last word on policy-making in the event of differences among ministries. The responsibilities of the three scrapped committees on UIDAI, prices and WTO have been assigned to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and one on natural calamities to a panel headed by the Cabinet Secretary. These have also been done to minimise decision-making process and to ensure that the PMO gets a better control over the concerned matter.
With all these structural and functional changes, Mr Modi also exhumed Dr Singh’s image as a weak PM, which was built on the argument that he did not have the last word when it came to crucial issues of governance and decision-making. Mr Modi, according to commentators on governance, has “certainly brought in speed” in deciding issues confronting the nation, as he did in the case of cancelling foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan.
( Source : dc )
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