Modi Presides Over Most Opaque PMO Ever in History: Ex-IAS

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Modi Prefers to Take Major Decisions with Minimum Possible Consultation

By MG Devashayam

Today’s PMO is the most centralised and powerful in India’s history and the real predator that is sucking out all other institutions. Modi’s desire for absolute control has reportedly meant that individual ministers have little authority; in most cases, not even the right to select their own officers, while civil servants are expected to be subservient.

The importance of the PMO in the union government’s scheme of things has always been directly proportional to the power wielded by the prime minister of the period. It is not surprising, then, that Narendra Modi presides over a very powerful PMO.

Communication under him has become a one-way street, with strictly regulated information being disseminated from his office. Modi’s dislike of being made accountable in Parliament has ensured that even opposition leaders rarely receive answers.

Modi prefers to take major decisions with the minimum possible consultation, possibly emanating from his desire to shock and awe. Modi has not just centralised all government policymaking in the PMO but he also controls the selection of top officials in the Government of India.

He has also been predisposed to short stints, keeping the upper echelons of the civil services in a constant state of uncertainty and the rate of transfers at the Centre is the highest in decades

Modi has shown a marked preference for officials either already known to him or those considered ideologically reliable.

Officers of the Gujarat cadres of the IAS and IPS, especially those who had worked with him when he was chief minister, have got the lion’s share of key posts; as for re-employed retired officials, those with the Vivekananda International Foundation, a think-tank with strong ties to the RSS, the organisation that provides BJP with both ideology and direction, have had an edge.

This included the principal secretary (the head) and the National Security Advisor (NSA). In virtually every ministry, the RSS men have been drafted, even at junior levels, as the eyes and ears of both Modi and the organisation.

In order to concentrate the powers, he has dismantled the nine Groups of Ministers (GoMs) and 21 Empowered Groups of Ministers (EGoMs)—which had been a hallmark of Dr Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government—to ‘expedite’ the process of decision making and usher in greater accountability. And Modi runs, by far, the most opaque PMO to date.

In addition to the all-pervading principal secretary to the Prime Minister, recently, a new ‘principal advisor’, to the Prime Minister has been created, and the erstwhile cabinet secretary has been posted, thereby seamlessly merging the PMO and cabinet secretariat.

Even the President’s office is not spared. The NSA is also part of the PMO, which enjoys the complete confidence of the prime minister. The PMO and NSA offices are not backed by any legislative provisions nor have parliamentary accountability.

So, there is a lot of power being exercised by these offices without any responsibility. Our system does not provide for any formal forum in which the PMO or NSA can express their opinion, which can be challenged by the civil service institutions.

Thus, their views do not appear in any file, which can be the subject of parliamentary scrutiny. It is only the ministers and secretaries who remain responsible and answerable to Parliament, either in committees (secretaries) or the House (ministers). The PMO and NSA wield all the power, and their role is predatory.

(Excerpted from ‘Emergency and Neo-Emergency: Who Will Defend Democracy’ by MG Devashayam, published by The Browser)

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