New Delhi: Though the Union Cabinet has met several times, sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi relies more on secretaries, sticking to a strategy he had adopted earlier as Gujarat Chief Minister.
With the intention to give bureaucrats a greater say, they are also being asked to present “out-of-the-box ideas” directly to the PM and set goals and targets that can be achieved in the short term.
Indicating the state of affairs in the government, the DIPP secretary had recently written in one of his Twitter posts, “First time in my career, free, frank and fearless interaction with the PM of the country. Highly motivating! Great flow of ideas.”
The confidence and the morale of bureaucrats is so high under Mr Modi’s leadership that they are seen overruling even ministers of their respective departments.
In the second week of June, Union food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan articulated the idea of two government appointees in every panchayat to monitor PDS. But, sources said, the idea was immediately shot down by his secretary Sudhir Kumar, who argued that the distribution system is a state subject.
Mr Paswan is not the only minister to see the bureaucracy suddenly showing its spine. Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh is learnt to have been still smarting from the embarrassment of not consulting his secretary Ashish Bahuguna before declaring drought in western India.
