UPA Gave 'Paper Rights', Narendra Modi Gave Results, Says Principal Secretary To PM

In a pointed address at a recent conference, PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, drew a sharp distinction between rights-based legislation enacted before 2014 and the delivery mechanisms

implemented by the current administration. Mishra argued that the previous regime, led by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), had prioritised the enactment of rights without the necessary mechanisms for effective delivery, a lapse he claims undermined the credibility of the legislation.

Mishra specifically referenced several landmark laws passed in the decade prior to 2014, including the Right to Education Act, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and the National Food Security Act. While acknowledging the importance of these laws in establishing statutory entitlements, the senior bureaucrat asserted that these entitlements often remained “paper rights” that failed to translate into tangible benefits for the intended recipients due to systemic leakages and poor last-mile execution.

In contrast, Mishra claimed that the tenure of the Modi government since 2014 has ushered in an era of “implemented rights”. This shift is attributed to the adoption of a “saturation approach”, which emphasises ensuring that services and entitlements reach every eligible beneficiary, preventing anyone from being left out. The delivery of these rights, he stressed, is now fundamentally supported by robust digital infrastructure and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) systems, which have drastically reduced corruption and ensured that funds reach the bank accounts of the poor directly.

Mishra went on to frame poverty alleviation as the Modi government’s “most effective human rights intervention”. He cited the government’s claim, widely corroborated by internal reports and international metrics, that 25 crore people have been lifted out of multidimensional poverty in the last decade.

According to Mishra, this success demonstrates that linking statutory rights with technological efficiency and a saturation mandate is the key to achieving true socio-economic equity and translating constitutional promises into lived realities for the country’s most marginalised populations.