(Image source from: How these lazy India ministers are coping up with the early-bird Modi?})

The Ministers and Junior Ministers under Modi regimen are all having wakeful nights - and no, power cuts and Delhi heat aren't to be blamed for that.

When you have a dutiful, punctual and efficient taskmaster like PM Narendra Modi for a boss, how different do you expect the things be? Apparently, Modi's punishing regimen for his ministers as well as junior ministers are keeping them on their toes around the clock

A report from 'The Telegraph' points out how Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan "looks bleary-eyed and edgy all the time." It also mentions how one middle-level minister was denied a vacation recently while another middle-rank minister, who seldom came to work before 2 pm before joining Modi government, was heard wondering "if his reset internal clock could affect his health."

A BJP insider says that there was an equally strict schedule during Vajpayee's tenure, but they were never held accountable for an odd day when they goofed up.

The only ministers to match his pace are Nitin Gadkari, the shipping and surface transport as well as rural developmentminister, M Venkaiah Naidu, the parliamentary affairs and urban development minister, HRD Minister Smriti Irani and MoS for Commerce & Industry as well as Finance and Corporate Affairs (under Finance Ministry), Nirmala Sitharaman.

The transition wasn't a cakewalk for ministers like Gadkari who too enjoyed leisurely mornings before being inducted into the Modi government, but all that is changed now.

Modi kicks off his long day at 6am, getting onto the phone an hour later, and ready for work by nine. His day continues till midnight." And when the boss does not sleep, can his team afford to do so?

But Modi isn't the only one to drive his team hard - if not crazy. Even Urban Development minister Venkaiah Nadu is heard to be giving tough time to his lazy staff and so is Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi who now wants her staff to punch their cards by 8.30 am and be up and ready for meetings in two hours.

Besides putting in extra hours at work in office, ministers and bureaucrats are having to slog harder than ever. But not all are complaining. Driven like their boss, the team believe that they all have a point to prove — that a government can be made functional, and governance deliverable. They know that to stay in office they have to perform or face the axe.

Not just work, Modi has also introduced some strict no-no's for his ministers showing them how he means business. As per the strict gag order, no minister is authorized to address or speak to the media on their own. All official announcements on policies will done by the ministry spokesman or the government spokesman.

Not just that, even though the ministers have the liberty to appoint their personal staff like Personal Secretaries (PS) and Additional PS, they will have to get a nod from Narendra Modi before hiring any bureaucrats.

Also, ministers have been asked not to put “laal battis” on their vehicles. Further, to thwart the risk of sting operations, the PMO has strictly asked the ministers to ensure that no visitor is allowed inside the minister’s office with his/her personal belongings like mobile phones or cameras or tape recorders.

Modi also expects his ministers and India's top babus to keep up with the latest technology. In a bid to digitize official records and interaction, he has ordered “the ministries and departments to make available soft copies of the signed notes for the Cabinet and Cabinet Committees along with all annexures to the Cabinet Secretariat in PDF format in an appropriate Computer Storage Media along with requisite number of copies of the final note."

As for now, there seems to be no respite for the bleary-eyed ministers who have little choice but buck up and toe Modi's line if they want to fast-track nation's growth like the man himself.

AW: Suchorita Choudhury