Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday brought 17 new faces into the Union council of ministers, including two in the Cabinet, against the backdrop of growing expectations that economic decisions will be hastened even in the midst of growing charges of corruption against individual ministers by independent political/civil society activists.
Signalling the UPA’s intent not to let activists dictate the agenda, the PM gave the coveted external affairs portfolio to Salman Khurshid, who has vehemently denied charges of irregularities by his trust.
Incidentally, Khurshid had minced no words in opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal and it would be interesting to see how he reconciles his personal ideology and beliefs with the PM?s larger foreign policy agenda.
The PM inducted former Rajya Sabha deputy chairman K Rahman Khan as a Cabinet minister, even though he has been in the thick of controversies over the alleged misappropriation of funds by a cooperative bank in Karnataka he once headed. Shashi Tharoor, who had to resign as MoS, external affairs, in April 2010 following a sling of controversies made a comeback. The Congress high command was said to have reservations against Adhir Ranjan Choudhury’s induction as a minister because he faced criminal charges, but, eventually, the Baharampur MP had to be accommodated.
Apart from fulfilling the party’s promises to some individual leaders like Harish Rawat who had to be upgraded to the Cabinet rank as a compensation for denial of chief ministership of Uttarakhand and to K Chiranjeevi who had merged his Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress and was rewarded with the post of MoS with independent charge of tourism ministry, the PM sought to send a signal to poll-bound states like Gujarat, upgrading Dinsha J Patel to Cabinet rank in the same mines ministry and also giving independent charge to MoS Bharatsinh Solanki.
With the induction of four new faces as MoSes from Andhra Pradesh, where the Congress seems to be ceding space to the YSR Congress of Jagan Mohan Reddy and losing ground over Telangana statehood demand, the total representation of the state in the Union council of ministers went up to 10, including three in the Cabinet? Jaipal Reddy, Kishore Chandra Deo and MM Pallam Raju.
In a strong signal to Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee who snapped ties with the UPA, the PM inducted three MoSes from West Bengal, including Deepa Dasmunshi and Adhir Ranjan Choudhury? known Mamata-baiters.
Later, talking to reporters, the PM said that his revamped team was ?a combination of youth and experience? and ?relevance to portfolios? was one of the criteria adopted in this reshuffle exercise.
Singh ruled out early elections, saying, ?I do not see early elections. It will be held in due course.? As for the resignation of seven ministers ahead of the reshuffle, including that of SM Krishna, Ambika Soni, Subodhkant Sahay and Mukul Wasnik, the PM said, ?The party also needs men and women of experience to strengthen it. They will be equally productive in the party.? He said he had wanted Rahul Gandhi in the government, but he has ?other preoccupations and he (Rahul) wants to strengthen the party?.
While the Cabinet rejig did bring some young leaders to the fore and sought to address the concerns of the ruling Congress in states where it seems to be slipping, the exercise left a few things unaddressed.
While Sibal, a pro-active minister and go-getter, was divested of HRD portfolio, many others like steel minister Beni Prasad Verma, chemicals & fertilisers minister MK Alagiri, and labour & employment minister Mallikarjun Kharge were left untouched despite their lacklustre performance.
Similarly, Jayanthi Natarajan’s continuation in the environment & forest ministry could spell trouble for the UPA government’s renewed thrust on governance as she looks determined to stall the creation of NIB to fasttrack infrastructure projects worth over R2.5 lakh crore and also takes on many party CMs who have been appealing to her not to put a spoke in the developmental wheels of their states.
While there were not many losers in this reshuffle ? except some ministers who had resigned ahead of the reshuffle ? the PM’s attempt to follow one-person-one-portfolio principle did result in telecom minister Kapil Sibal being divested of his HRD ministry in which he had taken a lot of initiatives.
Jaipal Reddy was another loser who was divested of petroleum & natural gas ministry and given a relatively less significant portfolio of science & technology and earth sciences. Veerappa Moily got petroleum & natural gas portfolio. Urban development minister Kamal Nath was one of the gainers with the additional portfolio of parliamentary affairs, and so were Pawan Bansal and newly appointed Cabinet minister Ashwani Kumar who were given railways and law & justice portfolios, respectively.
With the UPA government looking like living on borrowed times, it is yet to be seen how such a major Cabinet revamp pays off for the ruling dispensation.
