The writer is a former editor of the Mumbai-based English newspaper Mid Day and the Gujarati paper Divya Bhaskar. His book Translating Saadat Hasan Manto’s non-fiction work will be published this year aakar.patel@tribune.com.pk
In Narendra Modi, India has a prime minister (PM) whose style is the opposite of that of his predecessor.
Manmohan Singh was seen as indecisive, ponderous or at least, if you were favourable to him, overly cautious. He was also believed to be weak and waffling.
Modi is, as I said, the opposite: firm, in control, quick to decision, strong and confident. Reports of the manner in which he has taken charge of his office confirm this idea about his style. Let’s look at a few aspects of this. The first is the way in which he deals with the bureaucracy. On June 3, he had a meeting with secretaries of all departments to understand what was going on. “The top babus have been told to be brief in their presentation and according to a circular issued on Saturday, each secretary would be given 10 minutes time to present a 10-slide presentation,” a report said.
In one of his interviews, Modi has said he does not read files. His style is not to govern through “academic studies” (his words). To understand issues, he will not read but rather he will listen. The people he listens to are bureaucrats who are expected to read the files and then reduce their content to a few lines with which they orally brief Modi. After this simplification, Modi then understands the issue and gives his quick decision or comment. The PM’s preference for PowerPoint presentations, with their reduction of complex and diverse matters to bullet points, is in line with this style.
I was on a television show discussing this a few days ago and said there were three things that were striking: first, that the prime minister was overly dependent on other people for information, given his reluctance or inability to read long documents. And the second that such quickness in decision-making was not necessarily a good thing.
A retired bureaucrat on the show was offended. She said that this style was not unique and that “no prime minister reads files”. However, I find it difficult to compare the style of Modi and Manmohan and see them as functioning in the same fashion. The reason Manmohan was thought to be all those things I have described above is that he was a creature of detail, and of mastery over facts. His interviews show this grasp over complexity.
He was indecisive, or thought to have been indecisive, because when one is immersed in detail and fact, easy and quick solutions are usually difficult to arrive at. Writing in The Hindu, analyst Praveen Swami gave an example of one such instance. After the Mumbai attacks, the prime minister looked over the options for retaliation. He was told by the military that airstrikes against terror camps were possible but “precise coordinates and adequate imaging weren’t available”. The chief of Army staff “told Dr Singh he couldn’t promise special forces’ strikes would be successful either. No one could guarantee missile strikes wouldn’t escalate into war, or even a nuclear exchange — and no one could guarantee war would compel Pakistan’s military to change course.”
The prime minister did nothing and it is easy to see why. In this instance being indecisive and waffling was not a bad thing.
Another aspect of Modi’s style is his desire to control. A report from rediff.com this week said that Modi was consolidating power and decision-making in the prime minister’s office (PMO): “Secretaries of various government departments have been told that files sent by the PMO should be cleared immediately, and the secretaries should not place the files for the concerned ministers’ attention”.
“This directive,” the report said, “will make ministers redundant in key decision-making areas. Joint secretaries at the PMO will be in charge of specific subjects and ministries, and will take decisions on the prime minister’s directions. These, the secretaries, who head various government departments, are expected to clear without delay.”
There is a positive way of looking at this and that is accountability. When the prime minister thumps his chest and says he is looking after everything, he is not passing the buck, as Manmohan Singh was thought to have done in his tenure. The negatives are obvious and we will not go over them today.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (28)
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Aakar, if what I read is correct then India is playing with fire. Look at it this way, in his zeal to automate decision making, Modi will end up bypassing various checks and balances in the system and that certainly can't be good. You can either have quick decisions or good decisions, can't have both.
Power Point presentations have become a fad, a long living fad. Those who are not competent in their profession take to power point presentation as a means of hiding their incompetence. And of course there are always fools who believe everything in the presentation. This encourages the frauds to present even more presentations to fool the already established fools and reinforce the foolishness in the fools.
@Ali tanoli although its not an issue to rejoice for us,you would be shocked to know that Babulal Gaur Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav both are from backward castes.i can't say anything about caste but the thinking indeed is backward.
@Motiwala: Hahahaha No Other? Google about Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Chandragupta II Vikramadiyta of Gupta dynasty. Akbar was a no-body compared to them. He could not even capture Maharana Pratap who tormented Mughal troops for decades. History doesnt begin from 712AD in subcontinent. It extends beyond 2000 BC
@Motiwala: I could be wrong but just may be @Badal Patnaik was being sarcastic to highlight that lack of formal fancy education doesn't prevent leaders from performing. Except for Hindutva fanatics, most Hindus tend to hold Akbar & his great-grandson Dara Shukoh in good esteem.Yet another example of unlettered genius, but less popular, was Hyder Ali..
Here goes Aakaar Ahmaq Patel, again, exposing his ignorance. Every leader has his/her own style of leadership. The fact that Modi was spectacularly successful in the old job his people elected him to repeatedly, conclusively proves that he has mastered how he should govern. What is YOUR accomplishment, Mr Ahmaq Patel, that you feel foolhardy enough to find fault with that? With all due respect, sir, you look like a dumb idiot to do so.
Manmohan Singh was under the spell of Gandhi's. A guy in eight years had only three press conference and he was at lost to how to speak. His demeanor when he spoke was very weak and any time he spoke in his press conference was lacking strength, very feeble, and shaky. To lead a country one should be self-confident, in control, resolute, and assured. Singh was a puppet in the hand of Gandhi's. Gandhi family became billionaire's during Singh's tenure and that one reason Congress lost this election. It is too early to say or predict about Modi. Only time will tell how he leads country.
@motiwala maybe you forgot Hindu prince siddharta gautam who attained enlightenment in Bihar and later spread his philosophy ... Who is known world over.. Or emperor Asoka of india for that matter.
What's so unusual about all this I wonder. This is such a routine thing & just because it's Modi it doesn't become something special. Since the times of TB Macaulay when a File is to be "put up" for perusal by the deciding authority (PM in this case) a Note as Summary is attached outlining the issues involved & the pros & cons to enable the person to work towards the decision. Only if needed the big boss may decide to go thru the history of the case & various notations in the file to satisfy himself. Today that summary Note is substituted with a PP presentation, a print out of which may even remain with PM for more deliberation..
@Badal Patnaik: After this many years you still hate Akbar the Great. No other Hindu king or rajah ever achieved this much fame. Known all over the world. the great Mughal Emperors of India.
You find it difficult to understand Modi's style because you are Muslim who wants him and India to fail. There is no other explanations to your admiration of Manmohan Singh's incompetent style as compared Modi's effective admin skills.
I suppose Muhammad Jalaluddin Akbar, who was practically unlettered, would've been a far better ruler with a degree from Cambridge! Just like our own Manmohan, Montek, Jairam, and their ilk. Look at the advantages of having leaders who possess nice degrees from elite colleges. Only they have the intellect to grasp the problems and solve them. What is more, they sound wonderful on TV with their upper class accents. Perhaps the Chinese should import a few of them for their own good!
The proof of the pudding is in the eating..........Modi has just got the ingredients assembled and put it into the oven........and you say he uses his left hand instead of his right to whip the eggs.......why the haste to judge ?.........let me say it again - the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
@Hemant: Another great leader who had such a rough and ready decision making style was George Bush jr .
Well reminded at the right time. Whole world saw his acts.
So you are saying that Manmohan, instead of reading detailed report about options available after Mumbai attack made the decision based on what military told him! so how is this different than what Modi is doing?
Both styles (quick decision vs very long thought decision) have pros and cons. We have seen for 10 years one style so there is no harm in seeing other style as well. Actually Manmohan style was no decision style. For most of the things he claims that he was continuing the policy of previous government (Coal allocation to spectrum allocation).
Some quick decisions done by Manhmohan were not fighting Lok Sabha election and bribing MPs to vote for nuclear deal.
@C. Nandkishore: @Hemant: Let us leave aside George W. Bush who despite his many failings did after all ensure that there have been no terror attacks of that magnitude in US since then. I am sure the people in Pakistan wold prefer a decisive leader, right around this time instead someone who keeps on with the muzakaraat mantra even as Pakistanis are being killed.
In any case, just because one person prefers to get information by reading a file and other by listening to a presentation, it does not mean that the second person will jump to conclusion and make half baked decisions as subtly implied by the author. The bureaucrats of Gujarat will tell you that once they make presentations, he asks very pointed questions and will follow up withthem if they had said they will provide answers later but failed to do so. Nor is there any eidence that decisions were taken without thinking through downstream imoacts during his time in Gujarat.
So he doesn't read and doesn't care about the details. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
Another great leader who had such a rough and ready decision making style was George Bush jr .
@ajeet: Ajeet , Here the teachers , who can be compared to ministers , are also to be by passed and decisions are taken by peons and student leaders .
@Reddy: A few years back I was on two and a half hour flight from Kolkatta to Delhi . On the same row but across the aisle sat Pranab Mukkerji , then a senior Union Minister . The seat next to him did not have a passenger but a bulky brief case . Through out the journey he was busy reading his papers . The files had page markers and he was obviously cross referencing the facts in one file from information that was perhaps available in the other folders . He also had a copy of th relevant rule book which was also being consulted by him . His diligence made me , perhaps 15 years younger ,then a CEO of a large company feel guilty that I was not utilizing the flight time to catch up on my work . So say that Ministers do not read files is over simplifying a very complex situvation . I as a citizen would be very worried if my leaders outsourced the task of reading to their staff .
Aaker Sahib,
The example you give of ManMohan's decision making relied on were bullet points delivered by his armed forces people. His decision was to do nothing. I don't understand where did this involve reading big long reports and cogitating over complex issues. How is this different from Modi getting bullet points from ministers and making a decision, perhaps to do nothing as well?
I am sure you know that Modi makes hasty decisions based on a superficial knowledge, but you have not provided any convincing example. If his ministers are competent they should be able to convey the key aspects of the full complexity.
Isn't this a little too much of nitpicking? Why do you think CEOs of any big organization do not read reams of papers in files and instead rely on powerpoints? In any organizational structure you bring in capable people for different jobs and then trust those people to be able to do their job right, while the functional head puts in the checks and balances and questions to enhance the thought process and aid final decision making.
Why do people rely on powerpoints - they actually make the person who is putting together the presentation think harder - infact almost as much thought is put in distilling a document into a ppt as creating the document itself. What the format does is help bring out the core issues of the highest priority. They make one think through the entire "story" and integrate the implications of it. And very important it helps in giving better understanding to the audience.
Can you imagine how many issues a PM has to deal with and how much information can one person retain? The best way to lose productivity and comprehension and delay action is to bury people under mountains of files.
Tughluq.
So you mean to say that only a principal of a college should evaluate all his students and should not depend on teachers?
Although still hawkish, but slowly the critics are coming to His side. All that is left is for the PM to perform.
You are an idiot to think any top leader reads files. There is a reason why you have all these secretaries to assist you.