File photo of Congress leader and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is running "the most centralised" government ever in India's history, marginalising his Cabinet, BJP, and Lawmakers, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today said.
Mr Ramesh, a senior Congress leader, also expressed his fear that the country may be moving towards becoming an "illiberal democracy" under PM Modi's leadership. "The style of government is a one-man government. It's a very autocratic, authoritarian form of government where only Mr. Modi counts...," alleged Mr Ramesh during an interview to the Press Trust of India.
He alleged that in the 10 months of the NDA rule, the way Lok Sabha has been conducted was "almost dictatorial" in nature.
"For me, the biggest danger that the last one year represents is that India could be on the road to becoming an illiberal democracy. We were a liberal democracy but we are on the road to becoming illiberal democracy because we have a very authoritarian figure as the Prime Minister, who does not believe in consensus, who does not believe in taking people along and who says 'either my way or the highway'," he said.
He claimed that there is a lot of disenchantment among the people, both with the style and with the substance of PM Modi's functioning.
"He is running the most centralised government ever in India's history; he is running a one-man government; he has marginalised his Cabinet; he has marginalised his party, his MPs and so far he only has done repackaging and given political content to UPA programmes. People are beginning to ask questions," he claimed.
Mr Ramesh continued by saying, "It (PM Modi's attitude) will be his undoing. I think it's going to be one of the most crucial undoings. His slogan was 'maximum governance, minimum government', and he has turned that into 'maximum arrogance, minimum government', and he has defined minimum government as one-man government. No Cabinet, no senior minister counts, no body counts. He is the only one who decides."
He also sought to draw similarities between PM Modi and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao when asked about his assessment of the performance of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government.
"Dreams are being sold by Mr Modi in Delhi; dreams are being sold by KCR in Hyderabad. So, the dream-selling unites the two. Authoritarianism also unites the two. Mr Modi is as authoritarian as KCR. The way dissent is muzzled in Telangana is exactly the way dissent is muzzled by the prime minister. Making tall claims and false promises unite the two," alleged Mr Ramesh.