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| Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Sonia Gandhi at the swearingin ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar |
New Delhi, Oct. 28: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has overhauled his pilloried government, accomplishing probably his last such assignment through an understated combination that sought to balance merit and youth, political logic and administrative acumen and regional compulsions as well as opportunities.
Manmohan expressed the hope that today’s revamp — involving as many as 42 changes in the council of ministers, including 22 inductions — would be the last before the next general election which he predicted would be held on schedule in 2014.
The biggest gainers were Andhra Pradesh, with five entrants, and Bengal with three.
While Bihar finds its presence in the ministry with the NCP’s Tariq Anwar — now a Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra — being accommodated as a minister of state, Odisha will have reasons to feel dismayed as Srikant Jena was expecting a promotion. Even Madhya Pradesh leaders felt betrayed.
On Bengal, the high command sent out a deafening message to Mamata Banerjee by drafting her bitter critics Deepa Das Munshi and Adhir Chowdhury into the ministry.
The decision to make Chowdhury MoS in railways — long regarded by Mamata as a Trinamul Congress fiefdom — carries its own piquant message.
The Union ministry revamp has the “imprints” — a word that seems to have tickled Rahul Gandhi to no end — of both Manmohan and Rahul who is soon expected to work as the functional head of the Congress despite Sonia Gandhi’s presence at the helm.
The Manmohan-Rahul political waltz ensured a fine balance of what the Prime Minister referred to as “youth, experience and relevance to the portfolios”.
If Salman Khurshid was promoted to the coveted external affairs ministry because of his abilities, experience and persona, this decision also addressed a serious lacunae in the top decision-making body of the government, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which did not have any member from the Hindi heartland.
The biggest change has unfolded in education. M.M. Pallam Raju has replaced Kapil Sibal as human resource development minister — which is being seen as undeniable proof of Rahul’s imprint.
Although the Prime Minister is said to have a soft corner for Sibal, who many think did not live up to his promise in HRD, Raju, 50, bagged the key cabinet slot apparently because Rahul backed him.
The selection of Raju, a US-educated engineer with an MBA, was widely hailed as he is known for a cool head and vision. His stint as the head of the Congress’s research division also stood him in good stead.
The choice of Raju’s deputy also drew much attention, though he needs no introduction. The proven abilities of Shashi Tharoor, who has made a comeback after resigning over the IPL controversy, make him an ideal candidate for the education ministry. If the Prime Minister can channel Tharoor’s irrepressible energy effectively, the Congress may gain a much-wanted effective speaker at times of fresh crises.
If the promotion of Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot (both independent charge) signifies the generational shift in the cabinet, it also empowers two future leaders of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan which will go to the polls next year.
Rahul, who was chatting with the young ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan, could not help but quip: “I am talking with my ‘imprints’.”
The rise of the Rahul brigade may not have come with a big bang — none of the ministers has been given the cabinet rank — but their undeniable emergence is manifested in the choice of ministries. Scindia has been given independent charge of power, a ministry whose performance is vital for industry and the economy, Pilot will look after corporate affairs in the season of allegations of fraud.
The decision that stunned Congress veterans most and convinced them of the advent of a new era is the choice of Manish Tewari for information and broadcasting at a time the entire party resented the government’s failure at perception management.
Rahul aide Jitendra Singh, too, has been given independent charge of youth affairs and sports while Ajay Maken, identified as part of this group though he has been in politics for long, has been made cabinet minister for housing and urban development. Maken, who had waded into sports-related controversies, has been promoted but he has lost the portfolio.
Pilot is barely 35 years of age, while Jitendra Singh and Scindia are 41 and Maken is 48. Raju, now a full cabinet minister, is only 50.
A Congress leader expressed “great relief” at Rahul not “mindlessly pushing for a generational change”.
Rahul has, however, managed to place his loyalists in almost every key ministry. While R.P.N Singh has been brought to home as minister of state, Jitin Prasada has been stationed at both defence and HRD.
But the Prime Minister, too, ensured that the people he trusted and carried a clean image were given important positions. While Ashwini Kumar as law minister is purely his choice, even the sincere and hardworking Pawan Bansal getting the vital railway ministry was his idea.
The politics of the shuffle attracted positive responses in the Congress, though there was some degree of heartache. The conscious decision to not disturb any minister from Uttar Pradesh despite the electoral debacle was aimed at sustaining the revival plan in the state; while Beni Prasad Verma was shaky because of his utterances, Sri Prakash Jaiswal was jittery after the coal scandal. Both survived.
The unmistakable push for Andhra Pradesh, which now has 11 ministers if Jairam Ramesh who is a Rajya Sabha member from there is included, shows the depth of concern in the high command over the pathetic state of affairs after Jagan Mohan Reddy’s rebellion. Chiranjeevi, who merged his party with the Congress, was rewarded with tourism ministry along with four others from the Congress.