As Narendra Modi marches on in his third term in office and attains the distinction of becoming the longest continuously serving elected prime minister of the country and he is showered with well-deserved encomiums for the phenomenal achievements on various fronts, he is also confronted with questions about the quality of the men and women in his council of ministers and the sense of fatigue that has set in both in the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Be it the social sector, infrastructure, economy, defence, transport, foreign policy, or digitisation, PM Modi’s record over the last 12 years is outstanding, but the credit, barring exceptions, has gone entirely to him. How competent or otherwise are the 71 members of PM Modi’s council of ministers? It appears as if the burden of delivering on promises is entirely on his shoulders. Similarly, while the BJP claims to be the biggest political party in the democratic world (140 million registered primary members), has anyone heard of its general secretaries or other office bearers travelling across the country and galvanising party cadres?
The party apparatus is a pale shadow of what it was two or three decades ago, when it had active general secretaries like Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan, and Modi himself, who kept tabs on the goings-on in the states and were dispatched on trouble-shooting expeditions. For example, what has become of the party in Karnataka, or what is the rating of the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, or of the BJP in these states? How well is the party organised to face the political battle in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, and Manipur, which go to the polls next year?
This brings us to the issue at hand — fatigue — both in the government and the party. Whenever there is a charismatic head of government like Indira Gandhi or Modi, many in the council of ministers begin to believe that they just need to implement orders from the PMO and “be seen” by the leader. Several of them are leaders in their own right and have long political and administrative experience but over time, they get used to the perks that go with their offices and just go with the flow. Many of them need to be shaken out of their slumber and given new tasks to galvanise the party, where the KPAs are clearly laid out. But will PM Modi do it?
Few within the Union government indeed have energy levels that can match Modi, and this is true of the party apparatus as well. So, what should be done? The prime minister must undertake a major operation to bring in some fresh blood into the government and move some heavyweights from the government to the party apparatus. Thus strengthening both the government and the party. In other words, Modi must execute a BJP version of the Kamaraj Plan.
What was the Kamaraj Plan? K Kamaraj, chief minister of the then Madras State, suggested in mid-1963, when the fortunes of the Congress party were sagging, that top leaders of the party must exit from government and work for the party. He presented his plan to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and said leading Congressmen who are in government “should voluntarily relinquish their ministerial posts and offer themselves for full-time organisational work”. The working committee adopted his proposal, and it was passed by the AICC on August 10.
Kamaraj set the ball rolling by offering his resignation as the chief minister. Soon, other chief ministers and Union ministers offered their resignations. The prime minister had the unenviable task of deciding whom to let go and whom to retain, which he eventually did. Jawaharlal Nehru took a fortnight to decide and informed the CWC that he had accepted the resignations of six union ministers — Morarji Desai (Finance), Jagjivan Ram (Transport and Communications), Lal Bahadur Shastri (Home), S K Patil (Food and Agriculture), B Gopal Reddy (Information & Broadcasting) and K L Shrimali (Education) — and six chief ministers: K Kamaraj (Madras), Biju Patnaik (Orissa), Ghulam Mohammad Bakshi (recognised as “prime minister” at the time) (Jammu and Kashmir), Binodanand Jha (Bihar), Chandra Bhanu Gupta (Uttar Pradesh) and B A Mandloi (Madhya Pradesh). Several of them were assigned party work, and Kamaraj was appointed President of the Indian National Congress. S Gopal, Nehru’s biographer, described the exercise as “an effective way of political spring-cleaning”.
While accepting the AICC diktat on the Kamaraj Plan, Nehru said: The AICC resolution was a correct one even though it was unusual and rather unique. The decision was based principally on making it clear that Congress does not approve of people being attracted by the office and the power that it brings. “While all of us in the Congress should be devoted to the service of our people, the desire for office or power vitiates the desire for service.”
Since the BJP has been in power continuously at the Centre and in most of the states over the last 12 years, one can substitute Congress with the BJP in the above paragraph in order to effect a major overhaul and come face to face with reality. This observation of Nehru is worth considering because many within the BJP believe that a certain level of arrogance has crept in among ministers and chief ministers who are now just caricatures of the humble karyakartas they were when they were out of office.
Another observation of Nehru is significant in the context of the current debate within the government and the BJP at the Centre. Nehru said, “The action should be big enough to be important and striking. That means top personalities who are now in high offices must retire and devote themselves to organisational and/or other forms of service to the people”.
This is a key requirement for prominent party leaders because long years in office make many of them averse to the dust and grime that goes with building the party at the grassroots.
Despite his stern exterior, Modi does not let go of those he has worked with for long years. He keeps them engaged. As a result, most ministers have had a long innings in government, and the party is bereft of heavyweights. Given this temperament, the million-rupee question is, will PM Modi bite the bullet?
The writer is Member, Prime Minister’s Museum and Library Society
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi CM Rekha Gupta and Cabinet Ministers greet people at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi. (Express photo by Amit Mehra) 
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