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The Rediff Special

Vajpayee's team has a lot to learn

Of course, before Brajesh Mishra gives his view, he usually consults the concerned ministries. "And if there is a difference between various ministries on policy matters -- various ministries look at different issues from their perspective -- then it lands up at my desk," he explains.

This, of course, is sometimes regarded as interference from the PMO. But Sudheendra Kulkarni, director, communications and research, disagrees. "The Prime Minister's Office is there to assist the prime minister coordinate the working of all the ministries," he points out. Adding, "the notion that the PMO is interfering is absolutely baseless."

However, one area where the prime minister is taking a keen interest, and where he has been criticised as running a parallel ministry, is the economic front. Especially after the debacle in the assembly election, it was decided by the strategists in the PMO that the one area where the prime minister can make a difference is in the field of finance, economy, infrastructure and other related issues.

And for this, the prime minister is counting on his various tasks forces (on infrastructure, info-tech, etc.) and the advisory council on economic affairs consisting of prominent industrialists. But, as a joint secretary in the PMO puts it, the plus point here is not so much what the council will achieve, but the fact that 'we got both Nusli Wadia and the Ambanis to sit at the same table'!

The council was one reason that N K Singh was brought in from across the road to South Block. While more down-to-earth bureaucrats may regard him as somewhat of a fop -- his passion for Italian designers and listening to Kishori Amonkar on the CD player next to his desk while he works -- no one disputes his hold over industry, or industrialists. Even though his transfer was affected almost overnight, Singh took six weeks to shift into his own office, preferring instead to camp in the room that had been vacated by Pramod Mahajan. As the PMO folklore goes, Nandu wanted his paintings, CD player, and air-conditioning to be in place before he moved in.

But such is N K Singh's clout that the Cabinet decision to expedite disinvestment by setting up a new Cabinet committee on disinvestment under the prime minister's chairmanship was interpreted in only one way: more power to Nandu Singh! (The committee vests the PM with sole decision-making powers.) This certainly couldn't have gone down well with the RSS lobby. RSS pracharak K S Sudershan complained to a friend that there was really no difference between a Congress government and the BJP. "N K Singh was calling the shots then, and he is calling the shots now," he said bitterly.

But Vajpayee is in no mood to oblige the swadeshi lobby. His priority is economic reforms and let Sudershan, Ashok Singhal and Co handle the hidden agenda of Hindutva and Christian-bashing, pointed out a joint-secretary in the PMO.

However, the prime minister concedes there is a need to interact more with the party, points out an official in the PMO. This was one of the reasons why Kushabhau Thakre was unhappy with Vajpayee over the IRA issue. The BJP president complained that he had not been consulted after the Cabinet took a decision to allow foreign investment in the insurance sector. So, in order to prevent such glitches, the PM has decided to form a mechanism, where by the government can liaison with the party. And for this, he plans to recruit party spokesperson and general secretary Venkaiah Naidu.

In addition, he is also planning to interact more with the bureaucracy. "With 12 departments under him, the poor man is already interacting with at least 24 secretaries, so how can you accuse him of distancing himself from the bureaucracy?" asked a joint-secretary in amazement. But the prime minister has not forgotten his first few months in office, when the government was at the mercy of the bureaucrats. Even after a major reshuffle involving as many as 17 out of the 60 secretaries did not succeed in sending the right message. What did the trick finally was the low-key but ruthless manner in which Verma was eased out of personnel, Kiran Aggarwal shunted form the urban development ministry and Bezbaruah transferred out of enforcement.

But to be ruthless you need to have channels of information, which his PMO is taking far too long to develop. Critics of the BJP say that problems are left to fester, like the tension between ministers (between the minister and the minister of state in the HRD ministry), or like the problems created by the minister in the law ministry because of tardy clearance of files, or because of the problems in the agriculture ministry on the issue of sugar import or during the period of the onion shortage. What this PMO lacks is a ruthless R K Dhawan-like character who can pick up the telephone and tell the minister: "The prime minister desires that you do this or that, or that you don't clear one or the other file."

R K Dhawan could do this because through the subterranean network in government departments, he could collect information sometimes days and weeks before it would hit the 'official' grapevine. The uncharitable called it spying and it was undemocratic; but it was a system, and it worked.

Vajpayee's team has a lot to learn, but it has also learnt on the job. In fact, when PMO officials were asked to list their achievements, the most honest of them all came up with a quaint answer: Our situation is similar to that of the American soldier who returned from Vietnam covered with medals. Asked by his son to relate the history behind each medal, he shrugged and said, 'What's important is not the medals. But that I survived.'

So, what's important is not Pokhran or the post-Pokhran diplomacy; the Rs 28,000-crore road; the eventual ouster of Bezbaruah; the IRA Bill -- but that Vajpayee and his men have lived to tell the tale.

Inside the PMO

Who's Who in the PMO

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