PMO comes to the rescue of babus tyrannised by oral orders

Non-babus are calling it capital gains. Members of the Delhi Gymkhana and other crack clubs in its neighbourhood are celebrating the quietness of lunch hours these days, all thanks to how Narendra Modi has shaken up the lives of babus. Forget foreign trips, even leisurely tiffins have become a luxury. Because files have to be kept tip-top for a PM who could call for one in the wee hours of day or night.

But Modi isn’t just pushing babus to work longer, harder, faster. He’s also got their back. In June during his first direct interaction with some 70 secretaries who head the bureaucracy in various ministries, he urged them to work without fear, saying he was available to protect them via phone and email. Modi reportedly even promised, gasp, ‘You can meet me at any time’!

Now he has taken this protectiveness a big step forward. A memorandum at the PMO’s behest advises staff across ministries to carry out oral orders of seniors only after getting a written confirmation. Everyone knows the pen is mightier than the sword. PMO is reminding everyone that the pen is also mightier than the spoken word.

Sometimes babus do seem beaten like a drum, where one side pulls them up for the mistakes of ministers and the other side for kowtowing to ministers. But the new PMO decree brings order to this kowtowing, because a neta can’t just tell a babu to do his bidding. He now needs to do this telling in writing.

Tough Love is what Modi is giving babus. They are free of the tyranny of oral communications. In exchange they have got to come to office on time, maybe work five to nine, dress sharp and clear files double sharp, take a jhadoo to the dust and mop up the rust.

Cynical ‘kuch nahi hone wala hai’ camp questions the power of a memorandum or two to change the status quo. As Modi himself noted in his June meeting with the secretaries, a person can attain moksha by travelling to chaar dham but files can go to chatees dham without attaining moksha. Can babus clocking in on time and demanding written orders really deliver salvation?

Or are the PMO’s notes just another manifestation of Modi’s penchant for a presidential style? Where there’s the One Ring to rule them all, to find them, to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Sceptics and sycophants alike should note the extent to which Modi’s formula for achhe din hinges on well-performing babus. He can’t afford a demoralised bureaucracy. Carrots or sticks, he’s trying to pump up their performance. Meanwhile, it’s reported that babus’ working hours have eased a bit back in Gujarat. One surely hopes Modi’s absence from Ahmedabad is not the explanation!