Narendra Modi: The one-man cabinet

The word Namo, by which we Gujaratis refer to our beloved chief minister, has two meanings.

First, it is of course the combination of Narendra Modi’s initials, which in Indian languages come with the vowels attached, and so: NaMo.

The reason the nickname is popular, however, is because of its second meaning. Namo is an order: “Bow down”. The man has a cult following in the true sense. His devotees like the idea of prostrating before him. He loves this and has never objected to the name, despite its obsequious meaning. His imperial manner of functioning has also rarely found criticism from Gujaratis,

For many years, I have been pointing out that Modi has run a one-man cabinet. In 2006, he was himself Gujarat’s minister for finance, home and industries, the three top portfolios. I could be wrong but there is no parallel to this in our history. There’s more. In addition, he was minister for the two largest infrastructure projects, Narmada and Kalpsar. And he was minister for ports, energy and petrochemicals, mines and minerals. All ministries relating to Reliance, Essar, Adani, Tata and Torrent, he handled himself. And then Modi was also minister for general administration, reforms and for information and broadcasting, deciding which newspapers got government advertising.

There were other ministries he controlled but I’m not listing them. You get the picture. Even Julius Caesar, also an elected autocrat, had less power. Modi believed he was the only man with the ability to properly manage these ministries.

His admirers say that Modi’s personally running all these ministries is great because he gets the job done. I don’t like breaking their hearts, but that’s not true. For example, he has run one of the most incompetent home ministries in independent India. To illustrate: His deputy home minister is out on bail, his anti-terrorism chief is in jail, and his minister for women and child welfare is a convict. None of these three cases, incidentally, are the result of investigations by Gujarat’s home ministry which was dozing while the mischief was happening under NaMo’s nose.

So it is not right to assume that Modi can take on excessive amounts of work and deliver everywhere.

The other thing is that long term chamchas of his, like Amit Shah and Saurabh Patel were cruelly never given Cabinet rank, though they did most of the work. Shah being the hatchet man in the home ministry and Patel (who also uses the the surname Dalal, meaning broker) doing most of the running around in the ministries related to the economy.

This changed after the election a few months ago. The change has not been commented on, or even noticed. I think it is important. After 12 years, Modi has elevated Saurabh Patel and finally let go of energy and petrochemicals and mines and minerals.

Though most of the ministries mentioned above are still with Modi, the giving up of some important ones is a new thing for him. What’s going on?

I would like to believe it is the result of my repeated pointing out of his accumulation of power. But that can hardly be the reason. Let’s consider the possibilities.
Is NaMo: A) Becoming democratic? B) Opening up time on his schedule to prepare for 2014? Or C) Shielding himself from the charge that he hates sharing power?
My guess: Mix of B and C.