There are few obvious similarities between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh. Indeed, the reason why the electorate chose Modi so resoundingly was because his personality and style were in sharp contrast to a man who remained an “accidental Prime Minister” throughout his long, 10-year tenure.
However, there is one area where the styles of the two converge: neither is inclined to make casual utterances. This was easier for Singh who was naturally taciturn and avoided large public rallies where working up the crowd is both an occupational necessity and hazard. Yet despite being the BJP’s one-man army during election season and the face of India that every foreign leader of consequence wants to interact with, Modi has been remarkably measured with his public utterances. He has sent out clear and strong signals to his ministerial colleagues that he does not wish his Government to be embarrassed by casual remarks that are made impulsively and recanted thereafter with red faces.
By and large, and despite the attempts of wicked TV anchors to accord a literal meaning to the Prime Minister’s mythological allusions at a hospital inauguration in Mumbai on October 25, the Modi Government has been free of any major verbal mishap. This can also be attributed to the work-more-talk-less-and-don’t-party mantra that has drained lutyens’ Delhi of salacious gossip. Under the UPA, there was an avalanche of real or tittle-tattle information and the Beautiful People of Delhi were assiduously wooed and cultivated by the Congress’ inheritor brigade. Why, there was even a Minister who, for all practical purposes, attended every diplomatic party and released every new book in town.
Today, even the Minister from Goa — a State that prides itself on sun and fun — conducts himself with monastic aloofness, away from every hint of frivolity.
By contrast, the Modi Government has so far heralded unhappy days for news traders and professional lobbyists. Apart from the information clampdown on the movement of files and the strictures against loose talk, The Telegraph has reported that there will be few convivial garden parties this winter hosted by Ministers and political functionaries where hacks, dalals, socialites and gatecrashers will rub shoulders over kebabs and Bloody Mary.
In the first week after the Modi Government was sworn in, a visiting American dignitary told me smilingly of the astonishingly large number of people he had met who were allegedly on first name terms with the Prime Minister. If he were to return with President Obama’s delegation for Republic Day, he would perhaps now express equal astonishment that their numbers had shrunk dramatically in eight months.
The point is simple. Those who believed that a new BJP-led Government at the Centre would witness a continuation of the ‘happy days’ of the previous dispensation have been forced to revise their assessment. A pall of drabness hasn’t suddenly descended on lutyens’ Delhi. A culture marked by indolent lunches and endless rounds of networking parties have been replaced by a nose-to-the-grind work culture, with signals emanating from the very top. Had the PM chosen to become a carefree, party animal, the rest of political Delhi would have taken the cue from him. Instead, the culture of a 12-hour plus working day, beginning as early as 8.30 am and often ending as late as 9.30 in the evening has left both Ministers and babus too exhausted for mindless socialising. A Cabinet Minister who is the target of media derision proudly told me what the peon remarked to the driver: “The previous Minister hardly ever came to the office; this one doesn’t want to leave.”
Maybe the affable M Venkaiah Naidu wasn’t necessarily being jestful when he complained of Modi neither sleeping nor allowing his colleagues to sleep.
Cynics aren’t wrong in suggesting that India doesn’t care if ministers party and network, as long as they get the work done. In principle there is nothing to complain about deft time management or even the European obsession with quality leisure time and weekends off. However, any such idea in the Indian context has to be viewed against the backdrop of the chalta hai culture that has permeated into nearly every sphere of public life, and particularly the government. India is in need of a jolt, perhaps even a kick in the butt, to get back into doing what it should be doing and, at the same time, clearing up the accumulated backlog of years of a “Hindu rate” of productivity.
True, a Government does not run on faster clearances alone. It needs ideas, particularly ideas that disrupt the unending continuity of mediocrity. Such reforms won’t necessarily come about because a set of diligent Ministers clear files speedily and with full application of mind. There is admittedly a big difference between an efficient Minister and a reforming Minister. In the long run, India needs a reforming Cabinet that can inject dynamism into governance and bring the Indian State into the 21st century. In the short term, however, the country could do well to have a cobweb-free Government that takes decisions on merit and not out of collateral considerations.
History will be the ultimate judge of Modi’s ability to drive India in a new direction. Six months into the exercise, let’s give him full marks for effort and application. And at least he has managed to bring lutyens’ Delhi back to earth.
