New Delhi, Aug 30-Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, on Friday sought to project Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a leader who give his ministers a lot of “decentralised authority contrary to what a lot of people feel”.
“Contrary to what a lot of people feel there is a lot of decentralised authority to ministers… but it is coupled with a large amount of accountability,” Jaitley said.Modi, he said at the launch of two books ‘Narendra Modi: The Game Changer and Being Modi’, is clear about the direction of his government and it could be fast and slow due to democratic reasons but it will always move ahead and not go in reverse.
The “success” of Jan Dhan programme in such a short time, he said, was also due to Modi’s ability to push programme of government and the numbers of bank accounts opened on the first day touched even Rs.2 crore.
He, though, in a lighter vain added that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet was more relaxed and he would have left office by 6 PM.Nowadays, even by 9 PM, half of the ministers would be working, he said.
Hitting out at reports that he was ticked off by Modi for wearing informal clothes while on an official work abroad, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said at the event that since nobody speaks ill of Modi to media so stories are being “invented”.
Environment ministry, Javadekar said, had become “road block” and “tax collection” ministry under the UPA government.It coupled with several “no go” areas notified by the then minister Jairam Ramesh had brought development to a halt, he said.
There is no file pending at my table and pro-development and pro-environment are not contrary things, he said.Jaitley referred to Modi as somebody who decided to communicate directly to people, follows his own agenda and had the ability to rewrite the script.
Modi remains perpetually an outsider to Delhi, he said.Referring to “campaign” against him over 2002 Gujarat riots, Jaitly said most Indian politician would have collapsed but Modi grew due to his abilities.
-INDIA TODAY
