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FM style

T N Ninan

V P Singh, as finance minister in the mid-1980s, once pulled out a reed mat from behind a sofa in his North Block office to demonstrate how he used it for catnaps and his exercise regiment during a long working day.

Given half a chance, he would have given a demonstration on the spot. He would also run you through a matrix chart on which he had a list of things to focus on, with target dates for each entry.

This was a man focused on clear results. Over the nearly two decades since then, the various finance ministers have had their different styles of functioning and of furnishing their cavernous but impressive wood-panelled office.

Most finance ministers have made virtually no change to the office décor: a large boomerang-shaped table topped with fraying ply, government-issue chairs and two sets of sofas, and of course heavy drapes.

Jaswant Singh has thrown out the pictures of the President and Prime Minister, of Gandhi and Nehru, and of JP (introduced by Yashwant Sinha). The walls are now adorned by paintings, traditional and contemporary, Indian and foreign.

Out also has gone the tacky conference table that Sinha had introduced, and in have come what might be called the minister's vanity tables: marble-topped and heavy with pictures of Singh in his earlier avatar, posing with world leaders.

The wall-to-wall carpet went out long ago, to be replaced by ceramic tiles that are no improvement, and today's silk rugs (which Singh seems to skirt while walking in his office) are certainly more upscale than earlier. The drapes have been thrown away and sunlight streams in.

The minister's table and chair too are noticeably smarter, CDs lie around amidst the clutter, and the minister's favourite Worldspace radio usually plays Western classical music. A businessman who walked in and recognised what was on the air was complimented on his knowledge of Western classicals.

Even the two sofa sets now have contrasting styles, each setting off the other. Bookshelves guard the entrance. Whatever Mr Singh might end up doing to or for the country's finances, his own office certainly presents a more stylish picture than before.

Both Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram adopted a spare style. The table was usually clean of all bric-a-brac, the phones were prominent on one side, and files were piled up in clear view.

Dr Singh's formidable reading showed only in his conversation, for he unfailingly gave the impression of someone who was completely on top of his job, but somewhat lost in the world of politics.

Mr Chidambaram was master of detail, while his easy articulation and lawyer's training tended to make him come across as a know-it-all, though his lawyer's books were in an ante-room at his even sparer Delhi home.

He was also firmer on protocol. Secretaries said they were discouraged from walking in unannounced, something that Manmohan Singh had obviously permitted, or at least ignored.

Mr Sinha, according to his officers, was also good on detail and ever ready to plunge into it, but consequentially poor on prioritisation.

Jaswant Singh, in contrast, is reported to be very much the big picture man. And he controls access rather strictly, preferring to deal only with the five secretaries and those of ministerial rank.

Some joint secretaries in the ministry say they are still to meet him even once, though four months have passed.

Ministerial style consists of several things: methods of goal-setting, ways of interacting with colleagues, even the way the job is defined.

Attention to stylistic issues can therefore seem a distraction, and fastidiousness on such issues often attracts negative comment (for instance, Jaswant Singh's refusal to have cars lining the driveway to the ministry's front door). But certainly, entering the finance ministry today is a pleasanter experience than it used to be.

Style is also not central to ministerial functioning. But tasteful government offices, across the country and in the form of the embassies abroad, are a public service. The majority are tacky in construction and atrociously maintained, giving every impression of representing a decrepit state machinery.

That is not the message Jaswant Singh conveys in his corner of the vast government establishment.

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