Experts suggest umbrella ministries to resolve governance woes
Prabhakar said that Rajiv Gandhi, when he was the Prime Minister, created umbrella ministries to oversee related sectors
Hyderabad: Political economists and strategists, as part of the ‘Deccan Dialogues’ series, discussed organisation flaws in India’s system of governance and how these were holding up the country’s development.
One of the speakers, Mohan Guruswamy, said that having 87 departments for the Cabinet, as pegged by the Constitution, was excessive and that it was blindly adopted from the Westminster system. “For example, the agriculture department won’t have rural development, irrigation or fertiliser departments. We are certainly a mismanaged economy and a part of the reason is our organisation. The kind of organisation you have determines your outcome,” he said.
Agreeing with him, Parakala Prabhakar, another speaker, said that ministers are not selected based on their competence, efficiency, domain expertise or knowledge, but instead on various interests within the party or a coalition.
Citing an example, Guruswamy recalled an incident when a bureaucrat who approved a proposal for a power plant opposed it after he moved from the power department to expenditure.
Prabhakar said that Rajiv Gandhi, when he was the Prime Minister, created umbrella ministries to oversee related sectors, but unfortunately, the system was discontinued.
To resolve issues, Guruswamy suggested a full-scale structural reorganisation —having three layers of governance, with multiple junior ministers under a senior minister, and similarly, multiple secretaries under a Principal Secretary, but only if the Prime Minister was willing to cede control.
“Today, I am told the Prime Minister sees something like 670 files a day. He approves the board of directors of every public sector. Why? The PM needs to give leadership, and provide conditions for good government; instead, he is micromanaging. A phrase in India which doesn’t occur anywhere else in the world is ‘to enjoy power.’ The government structure has become a rigid control system,” he said.
Giving the example of Prime Minister Nehru’s government, he said the PMO was run with only Mathai and Seshan, one PS and one PA, and ministers like Sardar Patel did not take daily instructions from Nehru.