Perhaps it is for the first time in Indian politics that a major decision is taken without consideration of politic pulls or being influenced by the government of the day.

For political detractors however any decision of the Modi government is put to great scrutiny to find fault with it and then criticise hoping to gain political mileage.

For example, when no city of Uttar Pradesh could make it to the top 20 list of Smart Cities, the ruling Samajvdi Party in the state accused the BJP-led government of “cheating” the people of UP.

The part was joined by the opposition BSP in lashing out at the Centre’s process of selecting the cities for developing smart infrastructure in its first phase of funding.

But the fact of the matter was the Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu or government officials had nothing to do with the selection process.

“Ministry officials were not allowed to go through the proposals. We handed them to the evaluation team and we did not let anyone see them except that team,” the Ministry’s official spokesman said.

The evaluation teams comprised three foreigners and three Indian specialists. The team of foreigners came from the London School of Economics and the World Bank while their Indian counterparts came from independent urban development agencies.

Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha said the winning cities had impressive proposals with strong points such as sustainable urban planning, developing sound economic ecosystem and credible financial planning through city-level infrastructure.

Prime Minister’s constituency Varanasi failed to make the cut showed that in the selection process saw that there was absolutely no political or administrative interference. It is perhaps for the first time that specialists are allowed to work independently.