GoMs, EGoMs were a waste; good they’re gone
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to abolish all ministerial panels the previous administration had set up, has three main implications: First, it will revive the governance process that had been in limbo for the past few years; second, it will restore the powers and position of the Cabinet Secretariat, as envisaged in the Constitution; and finally, it will serve as a concrete step towards realising the motto of ‘minimum Government, maximum governance'. Officially, the Empowered Groups of Ministers and Groups of Ministers were established by the Congress-led UPA regime to consider a wide range of contentious issues. They were supposed to investigate them threadbare and then, in the case of a Group of Ministers, return to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet with recommendations, or, in the case of an Empowered Group of Ministers, make the decisions which would then be vetted by the top leadership. However, in reality, these panels served as a tool to delay the process of decision-making and deflect responsibility for governance. Every time a difficult matter came up for review before the UPA Government, instead of deciding upon it, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet passed it on to a ministerial panel. Mr Pranab Mukherjee, as Union Minister for Finance, headed almost all of the EGoMs and several GoMs. When he became President, his panel duties were handed over to Mr P Chidambaram. Messrs AK Antony and Sharad Pawar shared the rest.
To make matters worse, in most cases, the panels did not further the decision-making process in any way. Either they dawdled on the issue for several months or they simply did not even meet to discuss the matter at hand. Given that the Congress-led regime had set up as many as 68 GoMs and 14 EGoMs, it is no wonder that decision-making had come to a grinding halt especially in the last phase of the UPA’s two-term tenure. The UPA left behind as many 21 GoMs and nine EGoMs for its successor regime — all of which have now thankfully been disbanded by the Modi administration which has a much more hands-on, pro-active approach towards policy-making. Prime Minister Modi has made clear that he is serious about cutting out the excess flab from his Government and converting it into a lean, mean, high-efficiency machine.
The new Government has already begun investigating issues that had been pending with EGoMs and GoMs. If these issues are not solved at the Ministry or Department level, then the Cabinet Secretariat and the Prime Minister's Office will step in to facilitate the decision-making process. This is how it should be. Unfortunately, both offices had lost their voice under the UPA regime. While the Prime Minister's Office was remote-controlled from Congress headquarters, the Cabinet Secretariat was left rudderless. Interestingly, according to Congress leader Manish Tewari, the GoMs and EGoMs were constituted because many issues had inter-ministerial implications and a panel, therefore, helped bring all stakeholders on the same page. Yet, this coordination between ministries is the primary responsibility of the Cabinet Secretariat, which is tasked with the overall administration of the Union Government.