New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday gave a glimpse into the working of the governance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that the PM puts a lot of emphasis on training and feedback mechanisms, with the result that the rigour and the workload of the government machinery has gone up, along with the expectations of the public who are not willing to wait long for results.
Answering a question at the Sardar Patel Governance lecture, EAM said:
“Every Prime Minister tries to improve governance, that is part of the responsibility you have; some have a greater grip, a stronger sense. If you look at the present prime minister, the kind of emphasis that he puts on training, and the kind of feedback mechanisms that we have, the degree of rigour…
“As someone who started many years ago; the PM when I started my career was Morarji Desai, so when I look from there to today, honestly, the rigour and the workload and the expectation of people of the government has gone up.
“And I think in many ways the delivery expectation in society. People are not willing to wait, the way they would have waited 10 or 20 years ago. Society has become impatient in this country,” he said.
With regard to efficiency of the governance machinery, he said that the present government has a commission to make bureaucracy more competitive, more sharp. He said the idea behind Mission Karmyogi is that bureaucracy should not be an escalator, and there should be training.
“And having spent the whole of my working life in the bureaucracy, the service, in which I can see changes for the better. People are far more competitive, and far more willing to do things, which is very encouraging,” he said.
To another question, he said that while the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh did “sterling work” during the Partition, “there were people who for political reasons did not want to recognise it”.
“All religions need to be respected, but respect for religions does not mean that your own religion needs to be suppressed, and that unfortunately because of the ideologies of the day was a direction in which it went.. And somewhere people were almost defensive in being a Hindu,” he said. He also referred to the inauguration of the Somnath Temple in 1951 which became a big political issue because then president Rajendra Prasad attended it.
“Here was a person who in his beliefs, faith, culture, tradition, was very comfortable in his own skin,” the EAM added.
UNI
