By Kumkum Chadha
It is difficult to disassociate Nripendra Misra from Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi who actually went ahead and had the Telecom Act amended to induct Misra into the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). It was in 2014 that Modi handpicked Misra as his principal secretary. But there was a technical glitch: The Telecom Regulatory Act, or TRAI, prohibited its chairperson and members of TRAI from taking any employment with the central or state governments. Misra was former chairperson TRAI. This created a barrier in Misra’s appointment to the PMO which necessitated a change.
Not the one to give in, the Modi government first issued an ordinance and then had the Act amended. Apart from this setting a precedent, it sent a clear signal that Misra was kind of indispensable. And rightly so, because all through his five-years in the PMO during Modi’s first tenure as prime minister, Misra was the PM’s go-to-person.
This was further underscored even after he voluntarily quit the PMO. Within a few months, he was back in the limelight: not in the PMO, but entrusted with projects that were close to Modi’s heart: the Pradhan Mantri Sangharalaya, or the Prime Ministers Museum, and the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
True to his style and grit, Misra delivered as per the script. For others, it may be a near impossible task, but for Misra it was half the battle won given that he was familiar with Modi’s style of working and adhering to deadlines that are difficult to meet. Therefore, it requires that extra edge to work for Modi. But then Misra is no ordinary bureaucrat. Like Modi, he too believes in meeting deadlines and accomplishing tasks, however demanding. And that too, in record time.
Therefore, it would not be incorrect to conclude that success is not his second, but “first nature” to quote him. Obsessed with joining the Civil Services, Misra quit medicine within days of joining. Apart from his initial posting at Aligarh where he saw the pages of the Ramayana being burnt to cow meat being thrown in a temple, he has done consequential tenures, including serving two chief ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kalyan Singh
But back to Modi and his work ethics and style and why he went that extra mile to accommodate Misra, despite legal hurdles: “That is his nature. If he makes a choice he doesn’t change,” said Misra in an interview to a national media house.
A big takeaway of working with Modi was his “very clear direction”. To quote Misra: “There was very little that you could do as far as the broad policies were concerned. He has a vision and is also ambitious; his targets were much higher and we had to work within, quote unquote, his vision. There were occasional differences and I faced one within three four months on GST. The prime minister as chief minister of Gujarat had opposed the imposition of GST, so how could he change? So when the presentation was made by Arun Jaitley along with his officers, the first time he just dismissed it. He said: ‘No no there are many issues and therefore I cannot approve it’. We were disappointed and it needed two more presentations and perhaps he got convinced only when two words were mentioned to him: One that it is one nation one taxation; two anyone who will impose GST will perhaps be the frontrunner for introducing economic freedom. On these two, he stopped and heard us through and said work on it, I will give you my doubts and you come with the solution, but GST will be implemented. Once he decides, he does not change as I said”.
Misra’s assertion comes with a rider though: “I recall two instances, one during my tenure and one immediately after. Both were related to agricultural reform. In his address to the nation the second time, he mentioned that he was wrong in recognizing that the time for agricultural reform has not come. “I think it was premature, is what he said”.
On demonetization which came and continues to be under attack, Misra strongly defends the decision: “People evaluate him unfairly. I agree with demonetization. It may not have achieved 100 percent success for which I also take responsibility”.
Elaborating the point, Misra said: “There were certain assessments that do not go the way you want them to. There were institutions that were the main actors for implementation of demonetization. It did happen, but happened with a certain degree of corruption. When people ask why the expectation that lots of notes will be burnt did not happen obviously those notes got converted. The crisis was not about policy, but about the fresh notes being in short supply”.
Disagreeing that this was a failure, Misra reiterated that the role of the institutions concerned was wanting: “The point I want to make is that the man, the prime minister who was dealing with the problem of currency shortage decided at midnight that from tomorrow for the next one month, digitization will be the slogan. And suddenly this country was veering towards the digital mode of payments. And today in the whole world, the number of digital payments in India is a lot more than any other country including developed countries. The Aaadhar and the digital payments are successes and they are systematic successes of the present prime minister”.
That apart, Modi’s inputs on the Ram Temple construction and the Prime Ministers Museum were invaluable: “When this Museum was changed from Nehru Museum to Prime Ministers Museum in 2018, it was his desire that it should be more democratic and must present the deeds of all the prime ministers who are responsible for the development of the country. He was also conscious of the script and did not want one on sensitive issues, be it in the regime of Indira Gandhi or Lal Bahadur Shastri’s last days, Tashkent and after and so on and so forth. And we avoided that and certain events have been downplayed because they are controversial,” said Misra.
Talking about Modi’s gallery, Misra admitted that it was “a challenge”. It was in a sense an afterthought because it was not in the original plan to include a Modi-gallery: “It was decided to cover his first
two terms which are over and also not include his tenure as chief minister of Gujarat. There could be a criticism that the activities have been overplayed or shown disproportionately in his case. We don’t think so, but we are in the process of reviewing the Modi gallery,” Misra said quite smug, at what has been achieved, be it in the case of the Ram Temple or the Prime Ministers Museum.
—The writer is an author, journalist and political commentator