Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s first week in office makes one thing clear. Like Kautilya (or Chanakya) spelt out in Arthashastra, Modi is, regardless of sceptics within and outside, defining his governance dharma.

I have written previously that this will necessitate a recalibration of the government’s relationship with institutions such as Parliament, the judiciary, the bureaucracy and the media. Since 1989, we have had an unstable political arrangement at the centre as neither of the national parties could manage a majority, forcing them to go in for a coalition government. To ensure political survival, compromises had to be often made by the ruling combine, creating spaces that over time were seized by institutions other than the executive, with attendant consequences.

Modi, after inspiring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a historic win in the just-concluded general election, proposes a radical makeover of the existing governance paradigm by reclaiming the right of the executive (hardly an easy task because it’s tantamount to ejecting someone who has encroached on your land for years).

The intent was obvious in the run-up to government formation, but there is greater clarity since. The out-of-the-box idea to invite the leaders of all neighbouring countries truly stumped everyone, provided an impressive backdrop to the swearing-in ceremony and made clear that Modi was a risk taker. And most, including Pakistan, had no option but to go along with the mood.

The formation of the cabinet only reiterated the cornerstone of his thinking (of not being bound by convention) and his will to define it. By imposing an age cap of 75 years, Modi managed to edge out the old guard and also his trenchant critics from the cabinet. At the same time, he packed the cabinet with newcomers, several of whom are close associates, cleverly isolating his critics to avoid falling prey to frenemy fire (the last on this has not been written yet as he and his critics take up positions for the battle to elect the new president of the BJP).

The size of the cabinet (23) and its construct was not inspiring. Especially since a press release issued by the Gujarat Bhawan a day before the swearing-in ceremony argued that the guiding principle would be the principle of minimum government and maximum governance. Since Modi has indicated that a cabinet expansion is on the anvil, the size of the cabinet is bound to go up. More worrying is that the promised cluster approach in cabinet formation was visible only partially. The expectation was that there would be a merger of several ministries that is consistent with the construct of the new Indian economy.

However, a note posted on the Prime Minister’s website, which, by the way, was operational even as the swearing-in was taking place on 26 May, indicates that Modi seems to have faced some challenge and that the cabinet is indeed a work in progress. Reiterating his dharma of minimum government (sounds so much like the US Republican Party), Modi says, “It is a good beginning in transforming entity of assembled ministries to organic ministries."

The choice of the words, good beginning, clearly suggest it was not the script the Prime Minister desired. At the same time, implicitly it suggests the direction of change will not alter.

Tacitly admitting that the actual cabinet belied expectations, the same note makes his case: “Shri Narendra Modi is aware of the high expectations of the people. For whole four days, he was busy with the formation of Ministry and discussing various alternatives to effective governance, convergence and coordination between various ministries." And then adds, “Shri Narendra Modi tried in a rational manner to club like-minded departments in the ministry formation in such way to convert entity of assembled ministry to organic entity."

Similarly, the governance paradigm of Modi is made clear in the note. “The focus is on convergence in the activities of various Ministries where one cabinet Minister will be heading a cluster of Ministries who are working in complimentary sectors." Having spelt out the rationale, the same note then goes on to unambiguously define the direction and the end game: “Mr. 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."

This was followed up on the weekend with the decision to abandon the concept of group of ministers and empowered group of ministers, which were originally pioneered by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. It was later turned into a fine art by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance. As an idea, it was good as it ensured a focused discussion among key stakeholders and logically an early resolution.

Unfortunately, with growing intransigence in government, these sub-groups in the cabinet became more a manner of outsourcing responsibility and conveyed defensiveness of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s leadership to politically uncomfortable decisions. Predictably, it evolved into yet another layer of bureaucracy.

By doing away with this practice and empowering the raft of ministers of state with independent charge, what Modi has done is to take away any props to justify non-performance. All the key economic portfolios that require urgent attention to ensure a quick economic revival have been entrusted with people considered close to Modi. By vesting power in untried but extremely ambitious men and women, he is also seeking to play the classic management card of stoking the fire in the belly.

Anil Padmanabhan is deputy managing editor of Mint and writes every week on the intersection of politics and economics. Comments are welcome at capitalcalculus@livemint.com.

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