Slow motion

The National Democratic Alliance government prides itself on its speed of decision-making and execution. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) under Narendra Modi tries to lead from the front, including putting out government press releases and speeches of the PM on various government websites much quicker than in the past. But the PMO doesn't always get the same cooperation from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats. Recently, the PMO and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s parliamentary office wanted to bring out the PM's speech in the Rajya Sabha on the motion of thanks to the President as a booklet. But those manning the parliamentary party office were frustrated to find that the Rajya Sabha secretariat couldn't post the transcript of the PM's speech on the Rajya Sabha website even 24 hours after the PM delivered it. The BJP then took the help of an outside agency to transcribe the speech and get it published as a booklet.