A lean govt needs ministries, departments to be merged; will PM Modi do it?

Can Narendra Modi fulfil the BJP's poll promise of reducing the government's size by merging departments?

Later this week, a new government under Narendra Modi will be sworn in. Speculation is rife over who all will be part of the council of ministers. That may involve the fortunes of many leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But what about the likely size of the central government? 

The BJP had released its 2019 election manifesto sometime before the polls began. One of the promises read as follows: “In order to ensure better implementation of policies and coordination, we will merge similar and complementary departments into sectoral ministries. This will allow policy makers to frame holistic and comprehensive policies on the one hand and ensure smooth implementation on the other.”

That promise is quite categorical. If this has to be honoured, preparatory steps must be taken right at the start of the tenure of this government. If ministers are sworn in and a decision on merging the complementary departments into larger sectoral ministries is not taken at the same time almost simultaneously, this promise is unlikely to be fulfilled later. Once someone takes charge of his or her ministry, the task of chopping or changing the size and scope of that ministry becomes difficult with insurmountable turf issues taking precedence over the need for reforms and ministerial restructuring. 

Merging complementary departments into sectoral ministries is not a completely new idea, but difficult to implement because of these political turf issues. Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister merged all the transport-related ministries under one omnibus ministry. Thus, shipping, railways, civil aviation and roads became departments under a mega transport ministry. But this experiment did not last long, partly because of the lack of conviction on the part of the then prime minister and partly because the political turf issues snowballed into a major political problem. 

Can Narendra Modi, strengthened as he is now after the massive electoral mandate, fulfil the promise the BJP manifesto had made to the people? Can the ministries for railways, civil aviation, roads, highways and shipping be converted into a mega transport ministry? Why only talk about the transport sector? Why shouldn’t there be an integrated ministry for energy, with three different departments under it looking after petroleum and natural gas, power and renewable energy? 

Why should there be almost half a dozen ministries related to industry? Apart from the industry ministry, you have a ministry for heavy industries and public enterprises, a ministry for micro, small and medium enterprises, a ministry for food processing industries, a ministry for chemicals and fertilisers, a ministry for textiles and a ministry for steel. An omnibus industry ministry with all these sectors being covered as departments would help integrate the government’s efforts towards reviving the industrial sector of the economy. 

Similarly, why should there be two different ministries for the mining sector — one for coal and the other for mining? The need for streamlining would suggest that they should be merged into one ministry with two different departments. 

The BJP manifesto has also promised that there should be an integrated ministry for water, “unifying the water management functions to approach the issue of water management holistically and ensure better coordination and efforts.” The proposed new ministry for water could take over the functions of the existing two ministries — one for drinking water and sanitation and the other for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation. 

The challenge for Modi is that merging complementary departments and ministries would mean reducing the overall size of the Union Cabinet and the number of ministers of state with independent charge. Not that a similar exercise was not attempted in the past. In 2014, the ministry for road transport and highways and the ministry for shipping were brought under one minister — Nitin Gadkari. But that was a half-hearted measure as the other segments of the transport-related ministries like civil aviation and railways were kept under different ministers. 

If the government has to be made lean and more effective, the first move should be to merge the complementary ministries and departments by appointing fewer cabinet ministers and ministers with independent charge. This will become necessary as the total number of ministries would decline. 

At present, there are 25 cabinet ministers and another 11 ministers of   state with independent charge. In addition, there are 34 ministers of state. With Modi as the prime minister, the total size of the council of ministers goes up to 71. 

For those tracking Raisina Hill to check whether the new Modi government believes in fulfilling the BJP’s manifesto promise of merging complementary departments, May 30 will provide a clear answer. If the structure of the ministries, announced on that day, continues to remain by and large unchanged without any merger of complementary departments, then it is unlikely that such changes will happen at all during the tenure of the new government.