Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn’t taken a day off the 32 months he has been in office and the PMO doesn’t know if his predecessors either did, PMO said in response to an RTI query.
A Prime Minister of India is on duty all the time, the PMO has said, adding no leave records of former prime ministers are available with it.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said this when an RTI applicant sought a copy of leave rules and procedures for the Prime Minister of the country from it and the Cabinet Secretariat. “The Prime Minister can be said to be on duty all the time,” the PMO said in its reply.
The applicant also wanted to know if former prime ministers Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, H D Deve Gowda, I K Gujral, P V Narasimha Rao, Chandrashekhar, V P Singh and Rajiv Gandhi had availed any leave and were there any records.
“Information regarding leave record of previous Prime Ministers is not a part of records held by this office. However, it may be noted that no leave has been availed by present Prime Minister i.e Shri Narendra Modi since taking over charge,” the RTI response said.
Asked if there were leave rules for the PM like the ones for civil servants, the government suggested there were none. The prime minister of India can be said to be on duty at all times, the PMO said.
There was no provision for the PM or the ministers to be on leave, former cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra told Hindustan Times. No leave applications have ever been sent.
But this doesn’t mean they haven’t taken time off.
Back in 1986, Chandra recalled, Rajiv Gandhi famously took his first holiday when he travelled to Rajasthan’s Ranthambore National Park. AB Vajpayee, too, took his annual vacations in December.
