Modi’s life lessons for stressed civil servants

“A life full of tension cannot achieve anything, especially when you have to run the nation. ...You are very good at time management, but do you spend quality time with your family? Please think about it,” he said at the 9th Civil Services Day function at Vigyan Bhawan. Giving a pep talk to the officers, Modi said none of them should look withered.

Touching on contentious issues of bureaucracy’s conflict with political bosses, the Prime Minister said, “In a democracy, bureaucracy and political intervention go hand-in-hand. This is the essence of democracy. If we have to run this country, we do not require political interference. But political intervention is necessary and inevitable, otherwise democracy will not work. Political intervention is required in democracy as legislators are elected by people. Political interference destroys (the system).” Drawing a distinction between political interference and intervention, he said while the former “destroys” the system the latter is “necessary” and “inevitable”. The Prime Minister said bureaucratic temperament and political interference are often talked about as obstacles in moving the democratic process forward. “We have to overcome these obstacles,” he said.

Modi said accountability, responsibility and transparency are the key to good governance and that administrative reforms were necessary for providing good governance. He said there is a need to give priority to perfection, capacity-building and learning new technologies. “e-Governance, economic governance and easy governance are crucial and the day is not far when the world will look at mobile governance,” the PM added.