Narendra Modi obsessed with creating history everyday: Yashwant Sinha

Modi is the kind of man who wants to do everything himself and who is obsessed with creating history every day If he can become the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Timbuktu he would do so whether it is necessary and impactful or not says former Union Minister Yashwant SinhaThere is one thing he has done which no Prime Minister has done before he has taken most of the existing government programmes and renamed them so that the credit and glory accumulate to him observes the former BJP leader in his book India Unmade How Modi Government Broke The Economy a devastating essay on Modi and his government in the last four and a half yearsSinha who has been critical of the BJPled government has dedicated the book published by Juggernaut Books to All those who are not afraid to pursue the truthIn the chapter Hail Caesar Modis Style of Functioning the 81yearold bureaucrat turned politician who was Minister of Finance and External Affairs in the Vajpayee government says Modi has centralised all decisionmaking powers in the government of India in himself assisted by a few chosen officers in his PMOHowever he is known to be more interested in powerpoint presentations than in reading voluminous files This is a pity It means that he does not grasp the nuances that are stored in institutional memory Perhaps it suits a man whose intellectual training lacks rigour at best indeed no one has seen his higher education degree in entire political science Sinha says in the book coauthored with journalist Aditya SinhaHe says the government of India administration is driven by three centres one the prime minister and his PMO the finance minister and his ministry and three the Planning CommissionA politician used to head the Planning Commission earlier but now it has been silenced and replaced by the Niti Aayog where Modi has placed people who have zero influence on governance Sinha says adding that leaves only two drivers of governmentThe veteran politician who had quit the IAS to join politics observes that everyone knows how the finance ministers influence in government has declined to almost zero and he is unable to push things even in his own ministryAfter all why his finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia was involved in the infamous demonetisation exercise the finance minister himself was in the dark The finance secretarys proximity to the Prime Minister goes back to their days together in GujaratEveryone familiar with the functioning of the finance ministry is aware that independent political leadership of that ministry is absolutely essential to get things moving in the governmentModi he says is unfortunately a man who is impatient with institutions His faith in himself blinds him to the fact that he is not a king that he is only the head of a parliamentary party with a majority that enabled it to form a government and which is prescribed with limits by the Constitution that has inbuilt checks and balancesSinha says the cabinet is collectively responsible to parliament But as an institution it has been turned into a rubber stamp for the prime ministers decisionsIt is said that most cabinet ministers are not allowed to speak unless an item of their ministry is up for a decision Modi stands on a different plane from the ministers and he has no time for them because they dont matter Only he does and he will rule through bureaucrats this appears to be his mantra says SinhaThe November 2016 demonetisation of highvalue currency for instance was revealed to the cabinet only minutes before it was announced to the nation at no stage was it discussed with the collective political brains trust of the governmentHe feels perhaps a wider discussion would have made it more effective in achieving any of the goals that Modi set for it again and again during that surreal winterSinha refers to another big decision which took the concerned minister by surprise was the BJPs withdrawal of support to the PDP government in June this year with whom it was in a coalition government in Jammu and KashmirThe home minister who historically has been so important that he L K Advani has also been deputy prime minister had just days earlier visited Jammu and Kashmir energetically with a peace initiative in mind As soon as he heard the decision like everyone else as it was breaking he scampered off home unwilling to face his bureaucrats or the mediaSinha also refers to the most cavalier treatment of External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj who was the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha She is trolled by lunatics on social media and Modi goes on to congratulate some of those trolls for their activity on the internet on his behalf She is not only kept out of important policy decisions she does not even travel abroad with her Prime MinisterThis he says was in stark contrast to Vajpayee who invited Sinha as foreign minister to accompany him on every foreign trip He also observes that Modi did not take the Defence Minister into confidence while deciding on buying 36 Rafale fighter planes from France Vajpayee would never have done such a thing But then it is my mistake to compare Modi to VajpayeeWriting about the campaign carried out by him along with former minister Arun Shourie and activistlawyer Prashant Bhushan on the Rafale deal Sinha says despite Anil Ambani sending a cease and desist notice to all and sundry on this clear case of undue favouritism the nation awaits Modis responseCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever