A minor expansion again

TRUE TO WHAT appears to have emerged as a pattern of sorts since the National Democratic Alliance assumed the reins of power a year ago, the `expansion' the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, effected early this week was patently an exercise dictated by the BJP's own compulsions of realpolitik. In fact, unlike during the coalition regime he headed in 1998, most of the ministerial changes Mr. Vajpayee has made so far - the latest is the fourth such exercise - have had to do with the pulls, pressures and factional power equations within his own party, rather than its partners in the ruling alliance. The reinduction of Ms. Uma Bharati as a Minister with Cabinet rank is widely perceived as a caste-centric image-correcting initiative for the BJP set against the backdrop of the upper caste-oriented changes recently effected in the governmental and organisational segments of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. At the personal level, Ms. Bharati's comeback is in the nature of rehabilitation after her brief foray into agitational politics in her home State (Madhya Pradesh) and an introspective sojourn. And for the other inductee, Maj. Gen. (retd) B. C. Khanduri, the ministerial berth is a sop or possibly a tradeoff for not pressing his claim to the Chief Ministerial gaddi in the newly-formed Uttaranchal where the party's choice has gone in favour of Mr. Nityanand Swami.

What emerges from all the shuffling episodes is that the Union Cabinet has come to be increasingly regarded by Mr. Vajpayee as no more than an expedient tool in the management of party affairs, using ministerial berths for appeasing the disgruntled elements or striking a balance in the inter-factional power equations at the State level, much the same way as the Congress had been doing. For a national party that happens to be in power at the Centre, such political exigencies are perhaps unavoidable. But, when partisan considerations become paramount in determining the entry and exit of Ministers and the Cabinet is shuffled too often and in a piecemeal fashion - which indeed is the impression one gets from the way Mr. Vajpayee has gone about this business - the basics of governance inevitably get a hard knock. What is more, the intended objectives in party management are rarely realised inasmuch as the strategy tends to have a backlash. A case in point is that of Mr. Karia Munda who refused to bite the bait of a Minister of State berth offered by Mr. Vajpayee to persuade him to stay out of the race for the Chief Minister's office in Jharkhand, paving the way for Mr. Babulal Marandi. Whether he sticks to that stand or yields ultimately, settling for a higher `price', is a different issue.

As for the portfolio-related part of the exercise, Mr. Arun Jaitley's elevation to Cabinet rank is well-merited and the additional charge of Shipping he gets is perhaps intended as a compensation for the `loss' of the high-profile Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which went to Ms. Sushma Swaraj in the September round. That Mr. S. S. Dhindsa should have been divested of `Sports' (now under the charge of Ms. Uma Bharati) at a time when matters relating to the cricket match-fixing scandal have entered the climactic stage and the Government is all set to take a decision on the CBI's report indicting certain key players is bound to raise some eyebrows. A striking example of the casual approach that has characterised the Ministry reshuffle exercises is provided by the fact that a crucial subject like Chemicals and Fertilizers has changed hands frequently - it has now come to Mr. Dhindsa from Mr. Sunderlal Patwa who himself got it only last September. Such ad hocism and piecemeal approach does little credit to a regime that flaunts `good governance' as its credo.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Next     : Double standards