(Image source from: How workaholic Modi is giving his netas babus sleepless nights})
Having a workaholic boss is no blessing as the beleaguered, bleary-eyed, overworked babus and netas in Modi sarkar would tell you. Gone are the days when 'sarkari naukri' was all about late arrivals, long tea breaks, lax working hours and turtle-paced proceedings. With Narendra Modi at the helm of things now, the bureaucrats and ministers along with their staff are on their toes for the most part of the day.
Just 12 days in office and the ministers, bureaucrats and officers in Modi government can tell you what a taskmaster the hands-on Prime Minister is who expects his officials to slog for eighteen rigorous hours everyday and springs surprise checks on them any day, anytime.
Life seriously can't get more difficult for the badgered officials who are finding themselves in the middle of Modi sarkar. Modi, a known workhorse, expects his ministers and bureaucrats to toil long hours everyday, expecting same level of work and commitment as his.
The Business Standard recently quoted the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju as saying that the greatest difficulty in working with Modi is that the man himself is up and running at 5.30 am even after working well after 1 am.
Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has something similar to say. Talking to the same news source, she recalled how a couple of days back she got a call from Modi at 9 in the morning asking her to meet him in 10 minutes. "I left whatever I was doing and simply rushed because I know the PM doesn't like latecomers," she said.
Modi expects his ministers and bureaucrats to be always on the mark and well-prepared for meetings and follow-ups, abreast of all the going-ons and of course work, work, work.
"Officers cannot leave till the ministers are in office. Following in the footsteps of Modi, ministers have started calling babus late evening and even early morning to discuss issues," a senior official has been quoted as saying.
Not just that, India's obsessive new boss has been carrying out spot inspections of the ministries, commenting on cleanliness and showing what a stickler he is for rules.
"He found one of the offices filled with smoke and politely told the officers that there is a 'no smoking' board outside. In another room he found several dirty tea cups littering the desks. He just mentioned them and walked out but that was enough for us to get the message," a bureaucrat said.
While babus are hoping that life and work might get easier after the budget, Modi's enthusiasm to hurry the changes coupled with his existing reputation of a workaholic does not give them much hope in this regard.
There have been ongoing debates on how good long working hours and a demanding task master is for the employees. "Many consultants draw parallels from the corporate world to say while a CEO should be a hard taskmaster, he has to draw the line somewhere. Otherwise, such a CEO is referred to by his colleagues as a slave-driving psycho," says the Business Standard.
Given that Mr. Modi has been called worse, it's unlikely that he will care. So netas and babus, you better buck up!
AW: Suchorita Choudhury
