Modi’s reliance on his trusted set of lieutenants
The recent one-year extension granted to Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan has again shifted focus on how in the past 11 years of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, a select group of bureaucrats have enjoyed the trust and confidence of the PMO.
This confidence has been to such an extent that quite a few of these officials have been holding key posts within the government, despite having long retired and even reached an age, where it often becomes a challenge to indulge in taxing administrative work.
Despite administrative and bureaucratic rules stipulating a specified tenure for government servants and allowing their re-employment under only the rarest of circumstances, the BJP-led NDA government under Narendra Modi has been giving multiple extensions to a particular set of bureaucrats, who are part of the Centre’s key decision making mechanism.
Among the notable ones are PK Mishra, a 1972-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, who is currently principal secretary to the PM since the last 11 years.
He was additional principal secretary to the PM in 2014 but was promoted to the post of principal secretary in PMO after Nripendra Misra retired in 2019. Apparently his requests for retirement owing to advancing age, have been ignored by the PMO, thus showing the trust which the PM has on him.
Similarly, Nripendra Misra, a 1967-batch IAS officer who retired in 2004, was appointed Principal Secretary to the PM in 2014 and later chaired the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust’s construction committee. He currently heads the Prime Ministers Museum and Library, formerly the Nehru Memorial Museum.
National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval (80) has held the post since 2014 owing to regular reappointments.
Some other retired bureaucrats who continue to enjoy the PM’s confidence include Intelligence Bureau chief Tapan Deka, a 1988 batch IPS officer, whose tenure was extended by another year in May this year in the wake of Operation Sindoor.
In March, former Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra, a retired 1984-batch IRS officer, was inducted into the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) at the rank of secretary.
During the same time, former Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba was appointed full-time member of NITI Aayog. Prior to this, Gauba, a 1982-batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, was Cabinet Secretary from 2019 till August 2024.
Even Home Secretary Govind Mohan’s predecessor, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, held the post for five years between 2019 and 2024, after receiving several extensions. In December 2024, he was appointed Governor of strife-torn Manipur, where within two months after he assumed charge at Raj Bhavan, President’s Rule was imposed on February 13 this year.
These aforementioned handpicked officers continue to be part of the government’s policy making mechanism and their retention in service contrary to what service rules say, shows Modi’s overwhelming trust on this set of officials.
However, this trend of appointing trustworthy officials on important ex-officio posts which are outside the ambit of a formal governance framework, has always been there and was present in the erstwhile UPA regime, where retired bureaucrats like TKA Nair and Pulok Chatterji held influential roles under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Any elected government is well within its right to appoint retired officials at ex-officio positions, but over-reliance on a set of officials can lead over-confidence and casualness towards policy making.
Delhi