Discuss the evolution and changing role of the prime minister's office.
Answers
The Prime Minister's office provides secretarial assistance to the Prime Minister in discharging his constitutional duties. There has been some sort of tussle between the Prime Minister's office and the Cabinet secretariat to become the apex bureaucratic organization of the country. The changes in its role have been dependent on the Prime Ministers.
1. During Nehru's period the Cabinet secretariat was the apex body.
2. Under Lal Bahadur Shastri the office came to be known as the Prime Minister's secretariat. But the Cabinet secretariat still had more decision making power.
3. During Indira Gandhi's rule the PM secretariat became supreme and controlled the economy and financial affairs of the country.
4. Morarji Desai named it as PMO.
5. The PMO again became prominent under Rajiv Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
6. It remained subdued under PM Manmohan Singh.
It has once again become prominent under PM Narendra Modi.