by KINGSHUK NAG
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The Dictator IMAGE/Desi Martini
Immediately after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of India in May 2014, there was considerable speculation in Delhi about who his media adviser would be. This was natural given the speed and fury of Modi’s election campaign. There were expectations from journalists that the new media adviser would keep them regularly updated with the goings-on in his “fast-paced” government. A high-profile media adviser to the Prime Minister had been the norm in Lutyens’ Delhi since Indira Gandhi’s time, when the well-known journalist H Y Sharada Prasad occupied the position. Even during Lal Bahadur Shastri’s short tenure as Prime Minister, his media portfolio was handled by another well-known journalist, Kuldip Nayar.
“Imported” from Gujarat
The media was surprised, therefore, that after great efforts Modi found a nondescript bureaucrat, Jagdish Thakkar, to serve as his public relations officer (PRO), who was given a status equal to that of a deputy secretary to the Government of India (GoI). Thakkar had been “imported” from Gujarat, where he was a PRO in the chief minister’s office. His job had been to distribute press releases, not articulate Modi’s policies. It soon became clear that in Delhi too, Thakkar’s job would not be very different. He was chary of sharing even his mobile phone number with journalists, which many found rather unusual. His appointment was an indicator of the shape of things to come. Modi’s government is not an open one. Its policies and programmes are not debated in the various forums before these are finalised.
What subsequently happened gave a clue to how else the government would be run. Thakkar turned out to be only one of the worthies who were parachuted in to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) straight from the chief minister’s office in Gujarat. P K Mishra, Modi’s principal secretary at the time of the 2002 riots, was brought in as additional principal secretary to the Prime Minister. Officers like Arvind Sharma, Rajiv Topno and Sanjay Bhavsar, who had worked at various times in the chief minister’s office in Gujarat, found themselves in the rarefied environment of the PMO. Other confidantes of Modi—like Hiren Joshi who was appointed as Officer on Special Duty (Information Technology)—were paradropped to South Block. Other important officers also came down, including Hasmukh Adhia, who had been principal secretary to the then chief minister of Gujarat, Modi; Adhia has been perched as the revenue secretary.
Economic & Political Weekly for more
(Thanks to Mukul Dube)