Why number of ministers has nothing to do with the size of government

The size of a government has nothing to do with the number of ministers it has - a fact that is getting lost today in the midst of all the brouhaha over the 65-member Union Council of Ministers. That Prime Minister Narendra Modi has added 21 more to his team is not an indicator of an increase in the "size" of government.

That "size" is about number of departments, bureaucrats working in these departments, officers working for these bureaucrats and clerical staff engaged in serving these officers. If Modi is able to cut this edifice down, then he would be partly keeping his "maximum governance, minimum government" promise.

Partly because "minimum government" is not about size alone. It is also about unnecessary governmental interference, intervention and involvement.

An oft-repeated Modi mantra is "skill development."

While the government is welcome to help in empowering individuals and providing them with facilities to bring out the best in them, it is not very appetising if the government machinery then goes on to determine how such individuals actually utilize these skills.

From that point onwards individual entrepreneurship, drive and goals should be taking over.

Unwelcome government intervention stems from the 'we know best' mindset and the very popular political line that privatisation is essentially about rich people getting richer. Tariffs that often end up protecting inept domestic producers at the cost of the consumer, fertiliser policies that fatten fertiliser producers rather than reducing dependence on such chemicals are also symptoms of an oversized government. And that can be the case even with a 10-member council of ministers.

As for undue involvement, what exactly is the government doing in aviation (travel Air India) and hospitality (stay at an ITDC hotel). No power dispensation has ever wanted to answer to this, but happily employ truckloads of policies and personnel to run these entities.

How many ministers Modi gets installed in Lutyens' Delhi is not what makes his government big or small. What can make the prime minister's promise of "minimum government" come true are the following: Elimination of archaic laws and rules (the Law Commission now needs to submit its final report), cutting down staff and support staff, disbanding decrepit committees and panels, turning multiple-window clearances to single-point counters, curbing the institutional temptation of getting into markets, media, information technology, cyberspace and even the personal space of individuals, shutting down PSUs that are at a point of no return, ensuring policy-making is targeted, quick and much, much more. These actually make our central government big -- not 65 ministers of NDA versus 67 of UPA (May 2004).