INDIA
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi (pictured) could be facing a significantly changed senior Public Service if his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is re-elected in polling to be completed next month.
Government officials said at least eight senior bureaucrats in the Prime Minister’s Office either have sought a transfer to other Departments or plan to take premature retirement.
The officials declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject, but two said they were keen to be transferred to State capitals or to other jobs.
They said officials in several Ministries were trying to move, but they did not have a number.
There are about 25 senior PS staff working in the Prime Minister’s Office, which under Mr Modi has become the single most powerful Government Department.
Many top bureaucrats have complained about two aspects of the Modi Administration: their inability to influence Government policy, as it is largely controlled and set by the Prime Minister and a small group of Ministers and advisers, and the demanding work schedule they face.
One PS employee said the sense of partnership was missing.
“Modi and his Ministers do not have an organic relationship with the bureaucrats,” the official said.
A spokesman for the BJP declined to comment on the reports on the grounds that governance issues were managed directly by Ministers.
An attempt to get a comment from the Prime Minister’s Office failed.
However, a close aide of Mr Modi, Amit Shah said in February that some PS staff continued to suffer from “communist romanticism”, a reference to the alleged influence of the left-leaning Congress Party Opposition.
Meanwhile, nine professionals from the private sector have been recommended for appointment as Joint Secretaries — the first to enter the Indian Public Service without having to pass the annual examination.
The Union Public Service Commission said the move would infuse new blood and fresh ideas into the decision-making process.
This represents the first significant step by the Modi Government to bring specialists and experts into the Public Service from the private sector.
New Delhi, 19 April 2019
