india

Updated: May 22, 2020 22:52 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a meeting of the council of ministers on Wednesday to underline how the government should run for the next five years. The first meeting of the entire ministerial team comes against the backdrop of the PM’s meeting with the secretary-level officers on Monday.

Officials involved in the process indicated that PM Modi is expected to share his vision of governance with his team and list out the ‘dos and don’ts’ of the administration.

The meeting assumes importance as the second NDA government has more than 17 new faces and has been a heavily revamped version of the 2014 team.

Apart from Modi, defence minister Rajnath Singh and home minister Amit Shah are also expected to address the gathering.

Officials added that PM Modi may lay additional emphasis on social sector schemes, those catering to individual beneficiaries as they have a greater impact in daily lives of Indians. In the run up to the polls, the BJP had recognized the importance of individual beneficiaries and even tried to reach out to them as a vote-base.

“The Prime Minister is also expected to talk about the agriculture and the job situation and how the government is determined to improve these two sectors,” a BJP functionary said on Monday. The functionary also pointed out that the government has created two new cabinet committees on these sectors, underlining the importance of jobs and agriculture in the second innings of the Modi government.

When Manmohan Singh had taken over as the prime minister in 2004 and 2009, on both occasions, he too, had called a meeting of his council to interact with the ministers.

“But there is a difference. In Singh’s case, he ran a coalition government where the Congress was heavily dependent on its allies for its survival and therefore the government’s vision hardly transformed into reality. But for Modi, he not only has a clear vision of governance, he is also implementing it well,” said a senior minister.