Straight from PMO files, how Sonia ruled as proxy PM
Source: The Sangai Express / The New Indian Express
New Delhi, January 08 2017:
The Centre has decided to make 710 files of the National Advisory Council (NAC) public.
They provide a glimpse of the ecosystem that exercised absolute power with no accountability over the Government between 2004 and 2014 and reveal the influence the NAC, formed under the chairmanship of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, exercised on policy-making in coal, power, disinvestment, real estate, governance, social and industrial sectors.
Express has exclusively accessed files, revealing that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government followed up on the "suggestions".
The NAC summoned bureaucrats to its office at 2 Motilal Nehru Place, wrote to Ministers and sought compliance reports, though its charter defines its function as a body to provide inputs for policy formulation and provide support to the Government in legislative business.
The content of the files shows that the UPA Government had no choice but to implement the NAC's recommendations.
Here is an excerpt from the minutes of an NAC meeting held on October 29, 2005: "It was agreed that while implementation of the various recommendations of the commission would be the direct responsibility of the Government agencies and other institutions, it would still be imperative to monitor and evaluate this process, closely, independently and credibly" .