NEW DELHI- Emerging Style of Government

THE casual and even bored manner in which problems, big and small, policy issues and administrative matters are approached and dealt with Is becoming a striking feature of the functioning of the government in New Delhi. The unquestioned political pre-eminence and power of the Prime Minister and the aides who happen to be currently enjoying her confidence in the Prime Minister's Secretariat and at other points in the administrative machine have weakened the institutional framework of the government. But what is now beginning to happen goes beyond the end of the system of collective responsibility and functioning, which had been brought about by divesting the established organs and institutions of government of all initiative in policy formulation and implementation and even the running of the administration. It is now a case of open and brazen display of personal whims and fancies at the top, without care for any norm of accountability or efficiency and with complete indifference to public sensitivity.