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Cover Story ESSAY Cover story ESSAY themes of the Manmohan legacy. And “Since Nehru himself was well this prime minister is playing, in sub- informed, he didn’t require any expert dued steps certainly, to an appreciative advice from bureaucrats. He briefed global gallery, and his signature tunes bureaucrats instead of being briefed by are pro-Americanism and market lib- them.” It was during the Indira Gandhi The Power eralism. Still not a natural politician, era that the Prime Minister’s Men (yes, Manmohan has turned this perceived always men) acquired that shadowy, inadequacy into an advantage. Instead omnipotent status, and Lohia’s of getting bogged down in realpolitik, dumb doll needed a private army to The supremacy he can play out the script of the states- defeat the foxy gang of old men called man at a time when the world is short the Syndicate. P.N. Dhar was the first of the PMO in the of such reassuring leaders with a global principal secretary to the prime Manmohan era brings appeal. The Manmohan team reflects minister, and names like P.C. his mind. It consists of old loyalists (like Alexander, H.Y. Sharada Prasad, Arjun out the evolutionary Principal Secretary TKA Nair) and pol- Sengupta, Chinmaya Gharekhan, story of a shadowy icy mavens who share his international R.K. Dhawan and M.L. Fotedar would institution that and economic vision (like National become the scriptwriters of the Indira Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon, legacy. When Rajiv Gandhi romanced shapes the prime planning czar Montek Singh Ahluwalia India with his 21st century dream, he POINT too had his band of the faithful, most of ministerial vision them his school buddies—and that EVERYPMO MIRRORS was the time when Delhi became the By Prabhu Chawla site of a new Camelot. THE PERSONALITY There was no dilution of the powers hen Shyam Saran, a disgruntled insider, resigned of the PM—not only of the PMO during the Narasimha from the post of Prime Minister’s Special Envoy Rao regime too. If principal secretary A.N. Verma was his indispensable on Climate Change, it brought to the front his priority as a policy- counsellor, a handful of cabinet pages the power struggle within the sanctum colleagues like Manmohan and W maker but his fears, S.B. Chavan were the trusted imple- sanctorum of the executive power in the menters of the Rao doctrine. Still, it was PMO Republic: the Prime Minister’s Office ( ). Saran’s agony was paranoia and,of course, during the first right wing government multipronged: a junior colleague with a higher rank; a high that the supremacy of the PMO began profile, articulate minister who refuses to play second fiddle to his dream. to rhyme with the power of one policy wonks with fancy designations; and the boss who let him individual: prime minister Atal Bihari and Economic Adviser C. Rangarajan). Vajpayee’s principal secretary-cum- down. So, the former foreign secretary and a key backroom For political input, he has his favourites NSA, Brajesh Mishra. Vajpayee was brain behind the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister to depend on: Pranab Mukherjee and not the singular centre of political Manmohan Singh’s ticket to history, decided to leave the most Sharad Pawar, two war horses who power while BJP was in power, but hallowed part of South Block, overlooking the imposing have never undermined the authority that didn’t diminish his power as of the politically “inexperienced” prime prime minister: it remained unchal- grandeur of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. It is not the place from minister. The quiet authority of this lenged, for none was worthier or where any ambitious bureaucrat walks out willingly; it is the prime minister is a far cry from the popular than him. With Mishra as his place one waits for a lifetime for an invitation to enter. The 2004 image of the lucky but tentative non-political alter ego and Cabinet new occupant of 7 Race Course Road. colleagues like Pramod Mahajan and Prime Minister’s Office is the nerve centre of power. It is here The transformation tells the Jaswant Singh as his political the first draft of the vision that defines a prime minister is evolutionary story of the PMO as a lieutenants, India’s most popular prime prepared. It is the cabinet within the Central Cabinet and its supra-governmental power centre. minister from outside the dynasty too mystique is further accentuated by its aura of secrecy—and India’s first prime minister was not a sanctified the power prerogatives of great believer in a kitchen cabinet or in the prime minister. a sense of unaccountability, if not infallibility. a secretariat of experts for the simple Today, as Manmohan quite under- Every PMO mirrors the personality of the incumbent prime reason that Nehru himself was such a standably seeks a place in the history of minister—not only his priority as a policymaker but his fears, formidable brain that he hardly needed the subcontinent as a moderniser who MANMOHAN SINGH AND paranoia and, of course, his dream. Today, as the Age of borrowed ones. His personal staff took India to the frontline of global HIS MEN (FROM LEFT) never enjoyed super-bureaucratic power, it is those chosen few who fine- Manmohan enters its second phase, it is a hyperactive PMO that MENON, RANGARAJAN, NAIR AND AHLUWALIA powers. A bureaucrat who worked in tune the script. Their power is mani- shapes the defining agendas of this Government—or the abiding the Nehru government once told me: fested in their master’s glory. I Photographs by HEMANT CHAWLA, SHIPRA DAS, VIKRAM SHARMA; Photo montage by SAURABH SINGH/www.indiatodayimages.com 22 INDIA TODAY N MARCH 8, 2010 MARCH 8, 2010 N INDIA TODAY 23 NEW NEW.
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