PMO’s commanding heights
The Prime Minister’s Office enjoys more power today than under any previous regime
of economic affairs, and his work area includes the all-important Aadhaar. Sharma, a Gujarat-cadre officer, used to be known as the Vibrant Gujarat man for his role in the signature campaign under Modi’s chief ministership, and is now a point person for many industry issues.
Jain, an IIT-engineer-turned-IAS, is a Madhya Pradesh-cadre officer and seen as confidant of MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Known for his IT skills, he’s responsible for computerisation of the PMO, besides overseeing communications and skill development. Mukherjee, an AGMUT-cadre IAS, has been at the helm of Delhi Transport Corporation and Jal Board and her current work areas cover urban development, housing, rural development, among others.
Seshadri, an Andhra-cadre IAS, mainly looks at anti-corruption issues. Navnit, a Tamil Nadu-cadre officer who’s worked in the finance ministry earlier, is responsible for issues linked to finance, corporate affairs and Niti Aayog.
The latest entrant to this club is Baglay, an IFS and former spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs, and his responsibilities cover anything from space and defence to foreign affairs.
Modi’s all-powerful PMO has attracted attention because its uber-secretive and strongly centralised style of policy-making stands in sharp contrast to Manmohan Singh’s ten-year stint and, indeed, the first term of the National Democratic Alliance under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Ashok Chawla, former finance secretary (2009-11), points out that in the United Progressive Alliance government (UPA), several policies were decided by cabinet committees, groups of ministers and empowered groups of ministers. “That system has changed now.”
K M Chandrasekhar, cabinet secretary during the UPA (2007-11) , said: “Manmohan Singh preferred a consensus-based approach.” But, he says, Vajpayee, too, followed a more decentralised style. “I was working abroad then, but I noticed in particular that the ministers I reported to from time to time — Murasoli Maran, Arun Shourie and Arun Jaitley — had a great deal of freedom to take decisions and this resulted in flexibility on the field,” he recalled.
The emergence of the PMO as a power centre has evolved over time, and depended on the proclivities of the incumbent in office. Yashwant Sinha, who was finance minister and then external affairs minister in Vajpayee’s government, told Business Standard, “There’s no doubt that the PMO has emerged over the years as the most potent and powerful office in the whole government. It has expanded over time, asserting its authority on line ministries in matters of both policy and personnel.”
The early signs of the change in the PMO came way back in the sixties. Although Jawaharlal Nehru had a lightly staffed secretariat with just one joint secretary, the structure started changing when Lal Bahadur Shastri took charge in 1964. L K Jha, a powerful civil servant of the British era, was appointed secretary to prime minister Shastri and the number of joint secretaries increased to two.
But the real expansion of the PMO and its emergence as a power centre in its own right took place under Indira Gandhi when P N Haksar became the first principal secretary to a PM and the number of joint secretaries increased further. “That was the start of a powerful PMO, coinciding with budgets getting bigger and the government having to deal with complex issues,” said an official who was part of the Manmohan Singh-led PMO.
“It is primarily a political office,” he added. So, if the PM is strong, so is the PMO, he added. Commenting on the culture of the current PMO, a former minister in the Vajpayee government said, “The control over personnel has been an exercise of raw power by the PMO even earlier. But that has increased manifold now.” Today, the line ministries have almost no say in any appointment, he said. But during Vajpayee’s time, the PM or his office rarely got into economic policy matters, he said.
“The PMO was a listener and on no occasion was any proposal made by a minister related to economic matter disregarded,” a close aide in the Vajpayee government said.
Foreign affairs, though, was occasionally a different matter. A BJP leader said a minister accompanying Vajpayee on an official visit to another country had no idea about the speech he would deliver. “It was kept under wraps.”
On board, Vajpayee asked his minister if he had seen the speech. When the minister said “no”, Vajpayee stepped in and asked his principal secretary to show it to him. It was then that inputs were taken and the speech was modified.
Although Jawaharlal Nehru had a lightly staffed secretariat with just one joint secretary, the structure started changing when Lal Bahadur Shastri took charge in 1964