The Congress party on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “excessive centralisation and authoritarianism” after the government abruptly replaced L.C. Goyal with Rajiv Mehrishi, who was otherwise due for retirement by evening, as Union Home Secretary.
Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma made a string of charges against the Prime Minister. He said Mr. Modi had replaced Secretary-level officers at will, without informing or consulting the Cabinet Ministers in-charge.
“Sixteen new Secretaries were appointed on Friday night and the Cabinet Ministers got to know about the changes either through the media reports or notifications,” Mr. Sharma said. Mr. Mehrishi is the third Union Home Secretary to be appointed by the Modi government.
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The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had earlier included Cabinet Ministers apart from the Prime Minister and Home Minister, the Congress leader said. “Since he can’t have a one-man committee, keeping Rajnath Singh in the committee is a compulsion. But the Home Minister’s position is that he is only informed and not consulted. The PM’s mindset is disturbing for any democracy,” Mr. Sharma said.
Citing the examples of former Home and Foreign Secretaries, the Congress said that “disrespect shown to senior civil servants has caused an environment of mistrust and uncertainty.”