The Prime Minister’s Office
C. Sarvotham Rao
By 1946, the Indian National Congress agreed to join the Government of India, before the partition of the country. Necessary changes were made in the government by designating the Executive Council of the Governor General as the Cabinet, and the Council Secretary as the Cabinet Secretary. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru joined the Government on 3rd September, 1946, as the Vice-President of interim government of the Governor-General of India. Lord Wavell, was the then Viceroy and Governor-General of India.
Lord Wavell issued the following Minute (Instruction) on 10th September, 1946.
“Mr. Nehru, is not a Prime Minister, but he will have to deal with large correspondence (from people) as head of the popular part of the (interim) Government of India (G.O.I.). I have arranged for him to be given a principal private secretary, an experienced, (Hindu), Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.) from the Cabinet Secretariat, to help and assist him, in the office work. This Officer will continue as a Joint Secretary to the Cabinet, later to be integrated with the Cabinet Secretariat”.
The Dominion of India was formed on 15th August, 1947. The Officer working as the principal private secretary to Pandit Nehru never went back to the Cabinet Secretariat. The Prime Minister’s Office (P.M.O.) went on expanding in stages. During the time of Prime Minister, Srimati Indira Gandhi, the Office was upgraded as a P. M.’s Secretariat, with full powers and authority of the Government of India. It was headed by a Principal Secretary, a number of Senior Secretaries, Joint Secretaries, Officers on Special Duty (O.S.D.) with their supporting staff. In reality this office was the Government of India.
The Cabinet Secretary to G.O.I. (Till 1950) was of the rank and status of a Joint Secretary to the Government of India. As per the report of Gopala Swamy Ayyangar Committee (l949), the Cabinet Secretary was made the senior most Civil Servant with the rank of Secretary and head of the Cabinet Secretariat. He functions as a link between the Political System and the Civil Services (of G.O.I.). Once appointed, the Cabinet Secretary was not changed even with the change of the political system.
The Government of India, the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary to P.M., are two separate posts and are held by two senior officers of I.A.S. In no other country with a democratic system of governance, the Prime Minister has a separate office. Even in England (U.K.) there is no separate post of Secretary to the Prime Minister of Her Majesty’s Government.
In many state governments, in India the Chief Ministers have not only a separate office, but a full secretariat with a principal secretary and a number of Senior Officers. This is in addition to the Chief Secretary, who functions as the head of the State Civil Service.
All these administrative arrangements, functioning at present, need to be discussed and debated by the citizens of the country, in various forums, (Universities. intellectuals and N.G.O.s) The parameters and norms of democratic governance should be suggested. Are these separate offices necessary? Is it not duplication of administrative work? There should be a sincere attempt to reduce the public expenditure on the governance of the state.