New Delhi: Ministers in the Modi government faced a volley of questions from the Prime Minister as he conducted a feedback exercise over the last week. The questions touched upon subjects such as Covid management and the popularity of government schemes.
According to sources in the BJP, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Minister Giriraj Singh, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan were part of five groups that faced the review.
In one session, the PM is believed to have asked ministers how many of them had visited Primary Healthcare Centres and anganwadis (rural childcare centres) in the past few months.
At other times, he quizzed them on government schemes, if the ministers thought there were any shortcomings in the initiatives, and if the schemes were popular among the people. They were also asked about gaps in the Covid vaccination drive, and steps the ministers had taken to ensure these gaps were being addressed.
Modi also spelt out strategies to ensure government departments worked more efficiently as well as to check how effective current government initiatives were on the ground, the sources said.
Talking about the PM’s exercise, a source in the party told ThePrint, “He [Modi] is basically reviewing performances, filling gaps and alerting cadre and colleagues for upcoming challenges… ‘don’t feel crisis is over and get complacent’ is the message.”
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‘Zero hour with PM’
A minister who was present during one of the meetings said, “It was like zero hour, where he [Modi] asked for genuine feedback and gave tips for more effective governance… his thrust was for better capacity augmentation for future challenges.”
Modi pointed out that, in the past, his constant checking of the lower levels of working had improved efficiency of some projects, and suggested that each minister adopt one district or even a village to monitor how government schemes were being implemented, according to the minister quoted above.
“It is not justified to expect [that the] government can do every thing and [be] present everywhere… it is your duty to fill the blanks,” Modi told party general secretaries at a meeting held on 7 June, a BJP functionary who was present at the interaction said.
The PM had met all of BJP’s general secretaries for five hours, in the presence of party president J.P. Nadda. At the meeting, he had asked them about their work during the second Covid wave.
“Why can’t BJP workers adopt one anganwadi in their area or why can’t we take responsibility to monitor one Primary Health Centre in our respective area, or adopt one village during Covid for arranging health infrastructure?” a second party functionary quoted Modi as having said.
If every party worker had adopted one anganwadi, “we would have been much better prepared for containing the Covid devastation”, the PM is believed to have said.
A senior party leader who was also present at the meeting with general secretaries told ThePrint: “It seems that the Prime Minister was concerned about the absence of the party and government infrastructure in the initial, critical days during April-May, when Covid caused huge devastation all over the country… and only the opposition party was helping people aggressively. He said, ‘Our effort should be at that level [that] whenever there is need of anything during crisis, BJP men should be there for help’.”
Modi’s idea of a ‘zero hour’ had earlier been passed on to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Sarma had met the PM on 2 June, five days before Modi kicked off the review exercise. Modi had then told the CM to start a ‘zero hour’ to gather negative feedback about the state government’s working and schemes. Modi had told him that he himself had implemented the idea when he was Gujarat CM. “Accha bolne wala toh tumko bahut milega, lekin burai suno (Many will give good feedback, but also listen to the negative feedback)… only then you will [be] able to rectify [mistakes],” the PM had told the CM.
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Cabinet reshuffling, poll politics back in focus
At the end of the week-long meetings, the PM held an interaction with Home Minister Amit Shah and Nadda Friday to discuss the party’s organisational affairs across states and a possible Cabinet reshuffle in the coming days.
“Cabinet reshuffle is one of them [issues discussed] since second Covid wave cases are declining, vaccination is increasing… there is a sense in the government that it is the right time to make necessary changes in the Cabinet and states since election preparation has already started in election-bound states,” said a senior BJP leader.
“Several ministers [are] handling multiple portfolios… there is a need of redistribution of their work, a need to give representation to allies in UP, Bihar and a few fresh faces to be inducted… initially, [these changes] were due last year, but the Covid pandemic changed government’s priority, and it was postponed,” the leader added.
The leader also said Friday’s meeting dealt with the possible need to improve representation for unrepresented castes in cabinets of poll-bound states.
“The bigger challenge is to make a road map for 2024 and restore the political capital lost during these months due to Covid,” the leader said.
From cancelling board exams to ensure safety of students to raising minimum support prices to defuse the farmers’ agitation and extending free rations for the poor till Diwali under the Garib Kalyan Yojana, the government has already taken some steps to counter any negative perception, noted another BJP leader.
“But a major perceptional change is only possible through full vaccination and… to give perceptional momentum through change in team,” the leader added.
(Edited by Manasa Mohan)
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