New Delhi: During a meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with senior bureaucrats, media sources claimed on Sunday that a few officials expressed alarm about populist plans announced by various governments, warning that they are economically unsustainable and could lead them down the same route as Sri Lanka.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted a four-hour meeting with secretaries from all departments at his camp office at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, and other top Union government employees were also present at the meeting.
PM Modi urged bureaucrats during the meeting that they needed to shift their mindset from managing shortages to managing surpluses. According to the sources, he encouraged them to abandon the traditional excuse of “poor” as a reason for not pursuing huge development initiatives and to adopt a broader vision.
PM Modi praised the secretaries’ teamwork during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying they should function as secretaries of the government of India, not just secretaries of their own departments, and work as a single unit.
He also requested secretaries to provide input and point out flaws in government policies, especially those that had nothing to do with their own ministries.
According to the sources, more than two dozen secretaries aired their opinions and provided feedback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who listened to them with an open mind.
Since 2014, this was the prime minister’s eighth meeting with secretaries.
Two secretaries stated populist initiatives proposed in recent assembly elections in a financially troubled state, as well as similar schemes in other states, are fiscally unsustainable and could lead the states down the same route as Sri Lanka, according to sources.
Sri Lanka is in the midst of its worst economic crisis in its history. The public has been suffering for weeks due to long queues for fuel, cooking gas, and other needs, as well as long hours of power outages.
Apart from such gatherings, Prime Minister Modi has formed six-sectoral secretaries groups to provide new ideas for general governance reform.
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