(Image source from: Modi is the most 'centralized' Government in India's History: Jairam Ramesh})

Former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh banged present NDA Government while accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for running ‘the most centralized’ government ever in India’s history.

"The style of government is one-man government. It's a very autocratic, authoritarian form of government where only Mr. Modi counts...," Ramesh told PTI here in an interview.

He said that the 10 months rule of NDA and the way Lok Sabha has been conducted was "almost dictatorial" in nature.

"For me, the biggest danger that the last one year represents is India could be on the road to becoming an illiberal democracy. We were a liberal democracy but we are on the road to becoming illiberal democracy because we have a very authoritarian figure as Prime Minister who does not believe in consensus, who does not believe in taking people along and who says 'either my way or highway'," he said.

He claimed there is a lot of disenchantment among people both with the style and substance of Modi's functioning.

"He is running the most centralized government ever in India's history; he is running a one-man government; he has marginalized his Cabinet; he has marginalized his party, his MPs and so far he only has done repackaging and given political content to UPA programmes. People are beginning to ask questions," he claimed.

Asked if Modi's "this attitude" would be his undoing, Ramesh said, "It will be. I think it's going to be one of the most crucial undoing. His slogan was 'maximum governance, minimum government', and he has turned that into 'maximum arrogance, minimum government', and he has defined minimum government as one-man government. No Cabinet, no senior minister counts, no body counts. He is the guy who decides."

Mr. Ramesh’s jibe about Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is also raising many eyebrows. Ramesh made an attempt to draw the comparison between KCR and Modi when asked about his assessment of the performance of the TRS government.

"Dreams are being sold by Modi in Delhi; dreams are being sold by KCR in Hyderabad. So, the dream-selling unites the two. Authoritarianism also unites the two. Modi is as authoritarian as KCR. The way dissent is muzzled in Telangana is exactly the way dissent is muzzled by Modi. Making tall claims, false promises unite the two," Ramesh added.

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- Manohar. M