PM Modi and the mandarin measure

Around 129 government officers were forced to retire in the past few months

In the aftermath of the conviction of three top officials in the coal scam cases, and the bureaucracy’s pressure to redo the law, the PM has to reconcile this with his public image as a foe of graft. 

After a seemingly calm and harmonious relationship with officialdom for three years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is up against a test that could stabilise, enhance or reconfigure this equation over the next two years of his present tenure.

For, Modi could be held answerable for his oft-repeated exhortation to the mandarins to be “decisive”, “fearless in decision-making” and “think out-of-the-box”.

Prompted