Narendra Modi deputes 5 ministers to know MPs’ ‘mann ki baat’

Flooded with requests for appointments by party MPs, Modi has asked five Cabinet ministers to regularly meet the party MPs.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tasked five of his top Cabinet colleagues with conveying to him the “mann ki baat”, including grievances, of BJP parliamentarians.

Flooded with requests for appointments by party MPs, Modi, it is learnt, has asked five Cabinet ministers, including Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Manohar Parrikar, to regularly meet the party MPs and convey their inputs, suggestions and grievances to him.

Sources said though the PM himself meets party leaders and others “as often as he can”, his schedule doesn’t let him keep up with the number of requests from party leaders for appointments.

Most BJP MPs, sources said, prefer taking up grievances, whether related to their constituencies or about their state government, and inputs on other issues with Mr Modi. The PM had asked the MPs to review the implementation of the government’s schemes in their constituencies and to keep his office informed about them. “Sampark aur samvaad (connect and dialgoue)” was the first mantra

Mr Modi had asked all party leaders to follow after the NDA came to power in 2014. This mantra is often reiterated by him at his meetings with party leaders. It may be recalled one of the party MPs had raised the issue of Central ministers not being accessible to them at a parliamentary party meeting where the PM was present.

Many MPs, sources said, had raised this issue with the leadership and there was growing discontentment among saffron legislators on this subject.

After Mr Modi’s suggestion, some senior ministers like Ravi Shankar Prasad, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Smriti Irani and Maneka Gandhi had met MPs in batches ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament. Party MPs were also asked to give their inputs for the Union Budget.

However, sources said the party MPs prefer to meet the PM himself even to discuss organisation-related issues. Though these ministers are likely to meet the MPs in batches, most MPs want these meetings to be held on a “one-on-one” basis.