"Minimum Government, Maximum Governance", an idea popularised by our Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi after he took oath following his stellar performance in the Lok Sabha elections doesn't seemed to have found enough resonance when it came to actual governance. Initially lauded as a great idea and an efficient style of governing, now appears to have lost all its sheen in the power corridors of Lutyens Delhi as finally PM Modi expanded his cabinet and nearly 22 ministers took the oath of office and secrecy on a Sunday afternoon in the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Cabinet reshuffles has always been an exercise of balancing caste equations and regional aspirations at the Centre and often led to tokenism winning over merit. Something similar seemed to have happened on Sunday when PM Modi expanded his cabinet.
Out of the 22 new ministers inducted, four were of the cabinet rank, three MoS with Independent charge and rest 15 were of the MoS rank. In order to understand the politics behind the cabinet reshuffle, let us have a look at those inducted, their past track record and which portfolios they're allotted. Beginning with Shri Manohar Parrikar who has been given one of the most prized ministries in the North Block, Defence. The former Chief Minister of the state of Goa and an IITian, Parrikar is known as a clean man and for possessing the image of a tough and no nonsense guy. For a ministry such as Defence, he is considered to be the best choice. However, observers of Goa politics points towards resentment which was slowly brewing against Parrikar in the state for his multiple U turns and failure to control the mining mafias and bring in much needed reforms as promised during the elections. South Goa in particular felt most cheated. The very fact that Laxmikant Parsekar, a long time RSS aide has been made the new Chief Minster of Goa indicates that the change of guard has well been initiated from Nagpur itself.
Among the other newly inducted Cabinet Ministers is Shri Suresh Prabhu. Prabhu is considered to be PM Modi's G20 Sherpa and is known and globally respected for his work. A long time Sena man, he quit the saffron party this morning and joined the BJP before taking oath. His induction is one of the major reason behind the rift between the BJP and the Shiv Sena which led to Sena calling it's nominee Anil Desai back from the airport hours before he was all set to take oath as one of the council of ministers. Prabhu has been allocated the Railways ministry and is the person to watch out for. Otherwise a clean man, he is also under scanner for owning a flat in the controversial Adarsh society.
But what has surprised me the most is the induction of JP Nadda who has been allocated the Health Ministry. A behind the scenes person, Nadda has been recently accused of stopping all the corruption cases in the MCI and also behind the removal of the honest vigilance officer, Sanjiv Chaturvedi. This move clearly indicates that something is really wrong in the entire process and the removal of Dr. Harshvardhan and induction of Nadda reaffirms the point. Another surprise is allocating Shri Sadanand Gowda, the Law and Justice ministry at a time when his son is undergoing trial. This proves that the Modi government doesn't care about public resentment and considers these as petty allegations.
Among another MoS inducted is Shri Ram Shanker Katheria, a two time MP from Agra and a professor by profession. Katheria has 23 criminal cases registered against him, including one in which he has been accused of attempt to murder and in another cheating according to his election affidavit. Apart from cases like obstructing public servants and rioting, he also faces cases of serious nature, in which he is accused of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, forgery, forgery for purpose of cheating, attempt to murder and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds including religion. Well in terms of criminal record, the list doesn't end here. How can we forget to mention Shri Giriraj Singh who infamously said during the Lok Sabha election campaign that all those who doesn't vote for Modi should be sent away to Pakistan. He is currently out on bail while a case is running against him for keeping unaccounted money to the tune of ₹1 crore which was recovered from his residence during the Lok Sabha elections. Looks like our honourable PM has finally rewarded him with an MoS post in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises ministry.
With an eye on future assembly elections, PM Modi has played the caste cards quite well and is the prime reason for the induction of Agra MP Ram Shankar Katheria and Fatehpur MP Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, one a Dalit and the other belonging to the electorally powerful Nishad community. From West Bengal, Modi did not choose old party hand S S Ahluwalia but went for Babul Supriyo, a singer-turned politician with an eye to the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections in 2016. Similarly are the choices of Sanwar Lal Jat and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (a Rajput) as ministers from Rajasthan, which continues to be without a Cabinet-rank representation at the Centre despite the fact that all 25 seats went to the BJP. The induction of Hoshiarpur MP Vijay Sampla as MoS also came as another surprise. Sampla, a Dalit, is expected to be part of the BJP’s efforts to become a major anti-SAD, anti-Congress force in the state which has the nation’s highest percentage of Dalits which is around 32 per cent.
Even party turncoats have been well rewarded in the recent cabinet reshuffle. Case in point is Choudhury Birendra Singh and Ram Kripal Yadav. Singh, who has been a Congressman for 42 years recently switched sides to the BJP and has been inducted to placate the Jat community since the BJP decided on a non-Jat Punjabi as Haryana’s Chief Minister. He is now a Cabinet Minister with varied portfolios such as Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation. While Yadav, an erstwhile loyalist of Laloo Prasad Yadav, has been made an MoS in the low profile Drinking Water and Sanitation ministry. His induction again is seen to be made with an eye on the upcoming Bihar assembly polls to consolidate the Yadav votes.
And how come a cabinet expansion can take place without the Midas touch of its ideological parent, the RSS. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir (Maharashtra), the four-time MP from Chandrapur, the whistle blower in the coal block allocation scam is considered to be close to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Gautam Budh Nagar MP Mahesh Sharma, considered close to the RSS, was made Minister of State (Independent charge), Culture and Tourism as well as MoS, Civil Aviation. The Sangh is believed to have strongly batted for Manohar Parrikar, JP Nadda, Giriraj Singh, Bandaru Dattatreya, the sole MP from Telangana, Mahesh Sharma and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.
On a lighter note, while Shri Arun Jaitely have been relieved of the Defence portfolio, he has now been given the key I&B Ministry. Popularly known as Bureau Chief in the Lutyens zone, the twitteratti was flooded with jokes that he finally got the prized possession of a ministry which is reflective of his connections in the media. What I find more funny is the induction of his deputy in the Finance Ministry, Shri Jayant Sinha, an MP from Hazaribagh and the son of senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha. Funny because it makes two of PM Modi's own statements fall flat in his face. One, where he famously said "We don't want Harvard educated but Hardworking people" in order to take a dig on the then Finance Minister, Shri P Chidambaram. Sinha is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School. Second, his promise that his cabinet will not give any space to dynasts and would be purely on the basis of merit. Certainly Mr. Sinha has got his appointment owing to his merit and not because of the fact that he is the son of Yashwant Sinha.
Other ministers inducted include party loyalists such as Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya and Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, both from Gujarat, have been Modi loyalists for long. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, a pilot by profession who defeated former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi in Saran, has been made an MoS with independant charge for Skills and Development and also an MoS for Parliamentary Affairs. Also in the list is party Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is seen as the token Muslim face and has been stashed in the Minority affairs ministry with an additional charge of Parliamentary Affairs. It is also interesting to note that all those ministries which had non-BJP ministers at the helm of affairs now have a deputy in the form of an MoS in the ministry belonging to the BJP.
It is not for the first time that caste equations and regional aspirations has played such a key role in the cabinet expansion. However what is important is the fact that the way the cabinet is expanded defies what PM Modi said months ago when he emphasised that political compulsions, caste equations, dynastic politics and regional political ambitions will not dictate the selection of his cabinet. It's a complete detour from what he said. For those who don't remember, he is yet to also appoint an alternative to the Planning Commission which he abolished during his maiden Independence Day speech and was supposed to be functional within three weeks from then.
This cabinet expansion holds big gaps and is skewed in gender, religion and regional representation and has more of a Male, Hindu and North dominance defining the political and ideological limitations that the current government holds. It also destroys the argument of having a lean government as for your information, UPA had about 70 ministers and the NDA count is around 67. Also the PMO staff count under Dr. Manmohan Singh was 112 while under Shri Narendra Modi it is a whopping 356. In Twitter star Ramesh Srivats words, it's no longer a cabinet but a walk-in wardrobe. So now that minimum government is longer a reality, can we have at least effective governance if not maximum governance, Mr. Prime Minister?
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