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വായന

05 September, 2017

From the very beginning Modi was severely handicapped by the lack of talent in the BJP ranks. In the revamp, he has made an attempt to overcome this shortcoming by requisitioning the services of retired government officials who have joined the party.

A revamp left half done

BRP Bhaskar

As evidence of governance failure kept piling up, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reconstituted his council of ministers on Sunday, for the third time in as many years. Electoral calculations appear to have been a key consideration in the exercise.

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah has been egging party men for some time to prepare for the next parliamentary elections, which are due only in 2019 but can be advanced if Modi considers the political climate favourable to his party. He played a role behind the scenes in the revamp of the ministry.

It was Shah who asked the ministers who were to be excluded to hand in their resignations. He was also the one who liaised with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the party’s ideological powerhouse, on the revamp. The RSS is believed to have saved Uma Bharati, Hindutva’s woman face in the Cabinet, from being thrown out.

The quiet exclusion of six ministers is attributed to the Prime Minister’s dissatisfaction with their work. But if the purpose of the revamp was to eliminate poor performers, he has left the job half done.

Radha Mohan Singh, an embarrassing failure, remains Agriculture Minister. As farmers in distress killed themselves he famously said impotency and love affairs were the main reasons for suicide. When Madhya Pradesh was coping with a violent agitation by farmers, he was busy propagating yoga in his constituency and preparing to go abroad for a conference. Taking note of the sharp criticism of Singh’s conduct in the social media, Modi asked him to cancel the trip.

The promotion of four junior ministers, Nirmala Sitharaman (Commerce), Piyush Goyal (Power and Coal), Dharmendra Pradhan (Petroleum and Natural Gas) and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (Minority Affairs), to cabinet rank is seen as recognition of their good performance.

The promotion that received the most attention was that of Nirmala Sitharaman, who becomes the first woman Defence Minister, not counting Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had held the portfolio briefly. A product of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, which the RSS considers a den of liberals, and daughter-in-law of a Congress family, she is a highly articulate person and has picked up enough Hindutva lore to be able to argue that cow protectionism was the spirit behind the freedom movement.

The Defence portfolio has been held as an additional charge by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley since Manohar Parrikar left the Union Cabinet to head the Goa state government early this year. Nirmala Sitharaman takes charge of the ministry at a time when relations with two important neighbours, Pakistan and China, are in a difficult stage.

The principle of civilian supremacy, which was established firmly by early Defence Ministers, was eroded in the last stages of the Manmohan Singh government under AK Antony and in the Modi government under Parrikar. Whether the trend will continue under Nirmala Sitharaman or be reversed remains to be seen.

While Piyush Goyal has been entrusted with the Railways, Dharmendra Pradhan and Muktar Abbas Naqvi retain charge of their old ministries. With Naqvi’s elevation, Modi now has a Muslim minister with cabinet rank.

From the very beginning Modi was severely handicapped by the lack of talent in the BJP ranks. In the revamp, he has made an attempt to overcome this shortcoming by requisitioning the services of retired government officials who have joined the party.

Of the nine new ministers of state, four belong to this category. Two of them, Raj Kumar Singh and Alfons Kannanthanam, were members of the Indian Administrative Service. Hardeep Singh Puri belonged to the Indian Foreign Service and Satyapal Singh to the Indian Police Service.

States like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where Assembly elections are due next year, states like Uttar Pradeh and Bihar where the BJP wants to repeat in the next Lok Sabha polls its spectacular 2014 performance, and the southern states where it is keen to make a breakthrough received special attention in the Cabinet changes.

Several of the newly inducted ministers are long-time parliamentarians with RSS links. However, with the exception of Anant Kumar Hegde of Karnataka, there appears to be none who has invited opprobrium with words and deeds that betray an extremist disposition. If this indicates a change in approach dictated by the disastrous performance of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, it is a welcome development.

The ministerial changes did not involve any of the BJP’s partners in the National Democratic Alliance. The Shiv Sena, which revels in giving the big brother occasional pinpricks, demonstrated its displeasure by staying away from the swearing-in ceremony. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, September 5, 2017.

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