The imperial republic

Over-centralisation in Modi government an unhealthy trend

Within a few weeks of settling into 7, Race Course Road, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a little-noticed change, but one with major implications for the Union government. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, or the ACC, was reconstituted. The ACC is the sub-Cabinet grouping that is responsible for senior appointments to be made by the government. Usually the establishment officer of the department of personnel makes a proposal for which civil servant should fill which vacancies in the government. This proposal is sent to the Cabinet secretary, the head of the Indian Administrative Service. The Cabinet secretary would then seek the approval of the ACC, and then make the new posting official. Mr Modi's first step, taken over a month ago, was to reconstitute the ACC to exclude the minister concerned. Earlier, the ACC for the appointment of a secretary to a ministry consisted of the prime minister, the home minister and the minister in charge. Now, the ACC would consist of just Mr Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. It now emerges that even Mr Singh will only see the appointments after they have been made official. In other words, all the ACC-approved appointments are made at the prime minister's word, and nobody else's.

If true, this confirms the increasing centralisation of the Union government under Prime Minister Modi. In some ways, this is a welcome trend; certainly, many of Mr Modi's voters will have voted for him precisely because they expected him - and only him - to take the reins of the Union government. And under the previous government, too much latitude regarding senior bureaucratic appointments was ceded to the minister they would be working for - former telecom minister A Raja managed to go his own way on the matter of 2G licences when a recalcitrant telecom secretary was replaced by a compliant one. But the question is whether the pendulum has swung too far. Ministries should not be turned into extensions of the Prime Minister's Office. Indeed, seen in this context, Mr Modi's first meeting with 77 senior bureaucrats after he became prime minister takes on additional significance. In a three-hour long meeting in the first week of June, with no other members of the Cabinet present, Mr Modi had urged secretaries of ministries to email or call him directly, if they ran into any trouble or any obstacles.

This over-centralisation is an unhealthy trend. An evisceration of the Cabinet's responsibilities will only harm India's institutional integrity, not strengthen it. It is already producing worrying consequences. For example, when the Prime Minister's Office takes foreign-policy decisions or moves on foreign-policy initiatives without taking the ministry of external affairs into confidence at every stage, confusion and contradictions can follow. The on-again, off-again approach to relations with Pakistan, alternately warm and frigid, are a reflection of what can go wrong. Mr Modi should learn from this experience. It is worth noting that India's challenges are many times more complex than those facing any single state. A single man, or a single office, will fail to address enough of them. Mr Modi had a free hand in picking his Cabinet colleagues - the first prime minister with such freedom in decades. He must now trust them.