New Delhi: Following demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s equations changed with senior bureaucrats as the “free” communication channel between the two seemingly froze, former IAS officer Anil Swarup revealed in his book Encounters with Politicians released last month. However, he did not spell out specific reasons for this.
From Manmohan Singh, who was “helpless” before marauding ministers, to Modi, Swarup in his book talks about India’s current and former leaders.
The former IAS officer writes that Modi was someone who used to regularly meet civil servants when he came to power. In fact, he was “all ears for suggestions”.
The 1981-batch officer was full of praise for how the Modi government started in its first tenure. “With Narendra Modi as the driving force, the new government seemed to be bubbling with ideas. Most of these thoughts and concepts were imaginative and purposeful,” he says in the book.
He credits the PM for “breaking silos” of ministries. “He (Modi) had correctly diagnosed that the ministries existed in silos, which needed to be broken. It worked. Secretaries got together and solved many vexed issues, confronting the government.”
According to the book, all secretaries to the Union government were constituted into around 10 groups and were entrusted with specific subjects. This entailed several informal and formal meetings among the secretaries, who perhaps never got together earlier to discuss issues besides those relating to their respective departments, it states.
“Modi was keen on breaking these silos. He wanted senior officers to discuss significant issues together in an informal setting. He succeeded substantially,” writes Swarup.
The book highlights that one of the things introduced by the PM was quarterly tea sessions with Union secretaries. At these sessions hosted by the prime minister in an informal setup, over 100 Union secretaries were invited to his residence. After opening remarks from the cabinet secretary, secretaries, like Swarup, used to speak on any subject.
“Many secretaries freely shared their views on many subjects. It was indeed a great way of getting feedback on a plethora of issues. The prime minister responded to the suggestions and ideas,” writes Swarup. “It was incredible. A prime minister of the country was opening up in an informal setting perhaps for the first time.”
Swarup notes that based on his meetings with the PM, “Contrary to misconceptions and assiduously cultivated propaganda, PM Modi was prepared to listen and ready to accommodate difference of opinion.”
“This is the reason why I blame those around him for not presenting their views freely and frankly. On several occasions, I found officers with differing perspectives choosing to keep quiet or going with the flow,” he adds.
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Things changed after demonetisation
In the book, Swarup notes that Modi did start in earnest as PM, and the economy too seemed to be doing pretty well.
“Then where and when did Modi go wrong? In my understanding, it all changed on the fateful night of 8 November 2016, when demonetisation was announced,” he says.
Though initially Swarup was a supporter of demonetisation, he adds, the mismanagement resulted in the common man being the real sufferer.
After the demonetisation in 2016, Swarup says that the environment in the bureaucracy had changed.
“The last ‘tea’ session of the secretaries with the PM that I attended epitomised the mood. As per the drill, the cabinet secretary made the opening remarks. Tick, tick, tick… seconds extended into minutes but there were no comments or observations from the secretaries. This was most unusual as earlier, the top mandarins used to vie with one another to air their views before the PM,” Swarup highlights.
“The weather seemed to have undergone a sea change. The PM had to stand up himself and ask the country’s top civil servants to speak. Some did but the cat was out of the bag. The ‘free’ communication channel seemed to have frozen suddenly.”
Manmohan Singh
While Swarup showers praise on Modi, he largely remains critical of Dr Manmohan Singh, another prime minister he served under.
“The control he (Manmohan Singh) had exercised over the economy while unshackling it (as finance minister); was made conspicuous by its absence during his prime ministerial tenure,” writes Swarup.
One of the incidents mentioned in the book is about the then environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan and how the PM failed to take action against her.
“As head of the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) in the cabinet secretariat, I was tasked with fast-tracking projects, each with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore or more. Given the inhibiting environment prevailing in 2013, this was a difficult task, but the PMG’s approach started delivering results,” writes Swarup.
“Yet, files relating to environment and forest clearances for different projects remained stuck at the level of the minister concerned. The total investment value of these projects was around Rs 54,000 crore. It was rumoured that the minister was demanding ‘speed money’,” he adds.
Exasperated at the delays, he mentions in the book that he requested his boss, the cabinet secretary, in writing, to take up the matter with the PM. “It soon became evident that both he and the prime minister were helpless against the ‘marauding minister’,” says Swarup.
Eventually, the minister was shown the door but only once there was word from the Congress high command. “And, the Prime Minister was not the high command,” he adds.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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