THE BUREAUCRATIC LEGACY

Aware of the extent of the problem confronting him as he sought to transform the administrative structure, Modi encountered obstacles, but progress was always made. Being an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, the Prime Minister decided to give officials prominent in the UPA period a chance to redeem themselves, this time by carrying forward the “Su-shashan” he was intent on achieving in place of the “Ku-shashan” that they had been participating in during past years. From 2011, a small handful of well-wishers of Narendra Modi had said that the then Chief Minister of Gujarat (once he became Prime Minister) would need to ensure that key roles in a future Modi dispensation at the Centre needed to get filled by those untouched by involvement in the misdeeds of the past, including not just the Sonia-decade, but the period when the stock market scam, the UTI-US64 imbroglio and inexplicable decisions such as the import of 6 lakh tonnes of sugar from Pakistan took place, besides national security decisions such as the missteps and compromises made during the Air India Kathmandu hijack episode and the manner in which the Pakistan army was able to occupy positions along the Kargil heights during the winter of 1998 and early 1999. Alas, replacements for such a large cohort were not to be found. Despite the innovative nature of Modi’s Demo 2016, the Ministry of Finance as well as the RBI made missteps in implementation that inter alia had the effect of draining important segments of the economy completely of liquidity, something that the RBI in particular ought never to have allowed to happen even for a single day in a single sector. The Governor of the RBI responsible for this catastrophic draining away of liquidity from large parts