The evolution of prime-ministerial governance

The manner in which India's prime ministers over the years have strengthened and expanded their own secretariat is not an unknown story.

- A K BHATTACHARYA

This trend has been noted and analysed by several commentators and senior civil servants who wrote their memoirs after retirement. But the book under review takes a long-term and comprehensive view of the evolution of a prime ministerial government in New Delhi. It narrates the story of how almost all prime ministers worked towards sacrificing a Cabinet-led governance model.

In the process, the book adds a new dimension to the understanding of this evolution. The author, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, argues that this transformation took place against the principle of a Cabinet form of government, as enunciated in the Indian Constitution.

The new dimension of this understanding pertains to Jawaharlal Nehru and his commitment to the idea of a Cabinet-led governance model. It is widely believed that it was Lal Bahadur Shastri who laid the foundations of a strong secretariat for the Prime Minister in 1964.

Himanshu Roy argues that even before the Prime Minister's Secretariat (PMS) became an institutional force overshadowing the Cabinet secretariat, the seeds of a prime ministerial government were sown by Nehru. Indeed, it was Nehru, who mooted the idea of a high-powered PM secretariat overriding the power and influence of the Cabinet secretariat. This was opposed by then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and other senior ministerial colleagues. Even senior secretaries such as H M Patel and V P Menon had opposed the idea.

According to Prof Roy, the last British governor-general Lord Mountbatten was also against such a change in the governance model. After some debate over Nehru's proposal, the idea of a formal organisation to function as a powerful PMS was dropped.