'Not seen a listener like Modiji', says Amit Shah

Union home minister terms as 'baseless' the allegations that the Prime Minister operates like an autocrat or a dictator

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah: File picture

J.P. Yadav   |   TT   |  New Delhi   |  11.10.21: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said he had “not seen a listener like Modiji” and dismissed as “baseless” the allegations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi operating like an autocrat.

“These accusations (of Modi taking decisions alone) are baseless. I have not seen a listener like Modiji,” Shah said in an interview to Sansad TV, a channel for Parliament launched after merging Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV.

The minister was asked about a perception among a “section of the media and intelligentsia” that Modi is an autocrat who takes decisions unilaterally without holding consultations.

“During meetings, Modiji is the one who talks less and listens patiently to everybody and then takes the right decision,” Shah said, adding that under no Prime Minister has the cabinet functioned as democratically as under Modi.

“Whoever has worked with him, even the critics would agree that the cabinet has never functioned in such a democratic manner,” the minister said.

Asked why then such a perception had formed, he said: “Such things are deliberately done.…”

Then he quickly added: One reason was the “discipline” enforced under Modi.

“He (Modi) expects discipline. So whatever deliberations take place in a forum doesn’t come out. Earlier it used to get leaked but not anymore,” Shah said, smiling. “So people think that Modiji has taken a decision unilaterally. Whatever discussion has taken place is not known to the people or journalists,” he added.

It is widely known that in the Modi government, a very small coterie is aware of key decisions before they come for cabinet approval. Some senior ministers had acknowledged privately that they did not know of the demonetisation decision or the decision to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir till these came to the cabinet.

In the interview, Shah said a decision like demonetisation could only be taken by Modi, trying to project him as a strong leader.

The November 2016 decision to junk the high-value currency notes, which forced millions of Indians to line up before banks for hours and days on end, is widely seen as an economic disaster.

Shah also defended the government’s new farm laws and dismissed as unfounded the concerns of farmers protesting for the past nine months.

The Prime Minister has not once met the thousands of farmers camped on the highways outside Delhi since November last year to convince his government to withdraw the laws.

No questions were asked on the Lakhimpur massacre on which the Prime Minister is yet to react.