Modi Hints at Clubbing Ministries for Min Govt, Max Governance
NEW DELHI: Hours before taking oath as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on Sunday revealed how his government would look like. Minimum Government and Maximum Governance, a slogan he often used in his election speeches would be his mantra, where a clutch of existing ministries would be combined and brought under one umbrella.
While the list of Cabinet ministers to be sworn in along with Modi at the well-attended ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan was still kept under wraps, he finally gave a peak into things in store.
“Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi has made a dent in the formation of ministries. For the first time, he has adopted the guiding principle of ‘Minimum Government and Maximum Governance’ and rationalization with a commitment to bring a change in the work culture and style of governance,” said a late evening statement issued by Gujarat Bhawan.
Armed with a massive mandate, Modi, sources said, was undoing what the coalition UPA government was forced to do. He had promised that growth would be inclusive, based on smart governance.
“The focus is on convergence in the activities of various ministries where one Cabinet minister will be heading a cluster of ministries that are working in complementary sectors. It is a good beginning in transforming the entity of assembled ministries to organic ministries. It will bring more coordination between different departments, will be more effective and bring speed in process,” the statement added.
This meant that ministries like road transport, railways and civil aviation could be brought under one roof to arrive at greater synergy and convergence.
Similarly, there could be a separate ministry clubbing all infrastructure activities under one head. Such a ministry would be headed by a Cabinet minister assisted by several junior ministers.
“Modi is eventually aiming at smart governance where the top layers of government will be downsized and there would be expansion at the grass-root level,” said the first press release issued by his camp office based at Gujarat Bhawan.
When Modi takes oath, in audience would be more than 3,000 guests and the lucky few who would be part of his cabinet. But suspense continued till the last moment on who would make the cut to his dream team.
Senior leaders, including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ananth Kumar, would be part of the Cabinet occupying key positions, along with host of fresh faces from the BJP and NDA allies, but still there was a veil of secrecy over the exact portfolios for them.
Modi, who along with senior leaders had been holding consultations, finally explained the reason to downsize the ministries. “Earlier, there was political instability and multi-party governments, the ministry formation was done in a bifurcated manner.”
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