How able is our Union Cabinet?
The current Union Cabinet has quite a few people who are not popularly elected. This is not to say that members of the Rajya Sabha (Rajya Sabha members are elected either indirectly or are nominated by the President) should not become ministers, but it becomes a bit too much if 4 of the 6 major cabinet posts in the current Government are filled by people not popularly elected. One of the other two, though a veteran, won his first Lok Sabha election in 2004. What is worse, most of these seniormost cabinet ministers have never been popular political leaders in their entire political careers. This would have still been passable if all or a good proportion of them were doing their jobs well. Some of them are indeed highly qualified, though not necessarily suitable for their job. Though only 3 of these 6 senior ministers have been Congressmen all their lives, all of them have always been 'respectful' to the Nehru-Gandhi family. The average age of these six senior ministers is over 70, with the youngest being Mr. Chidambaram at 60. All others are over 70 years old. The high proportion of Congress old-timers holding important posts at the government shows that loyalty (read sycophancy & coterie politics) works at the very top in India’s ruling party.
Right at the top of the Union Government is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a former RBI Governer & Professor at Delhi School of Economics. He was brought into active politics about 15 years ago and has since managed to maintain his respect for being a good economist and generally clean, though the performance of his government since he took over in May 2004 has left much to be desired. He suffers from the double handicap of being a political light-weight in his party as well as not being a popular leader among masses. His lone attempt to get elected to the Lok Sabha from the posh & well-educated South Delhi constituency in 1999 was disastrous enough to persuade him to never contest again. He wouldn’t have been Prime Minister if Sonia Gandhi wasn’t foreign born and he was a bigger political force. Mr. Manmohan Singh was a good candidate as a Congress Prime Minister, in the event Sonia Gandhi couldn’t make it, because he was such a light-weight and uncontroversial person that he was easily acceptable to most factions in the party. This is precisely the reason why the likes of Pranab Mukherjee & Arjun Singh could not make it to the hot seat this time. This was the same reason that led to Late Mr. P V Narasimha Rao being cajoled back from retirement to become India’s 9th Prime Minister as influential & popular mass leaders such as Sharad Pawar, Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia & also Pranab Mukherjee were all vying for the Prime Minister’s chair after Rajiv Gandhi’s death.
This is not to say that Congress has a long list of popular leaders with a mass base that they can use to win elections on their own. Pranab Mukherjee, an extremely influential leader in the Congress Party & Defense Minister of the country, also often seen as No. 2 in the union cabinet after Mr. Manmohan Singh, is a virtual political non-entity in his home state of West Bengal. His party is often a distant third in the state, far behind the Left combine which has ruled the state uninterrupted for close to 30 years now and Trinamool Congress, a breakaway section of Congress party led by Mamata Banerjee. He has won Lok Sabha elections just once (in 2004) in his long political career.
Natwar Singh, the just deposed External Affairs Minister, was probably one of the most qualified for his job. As a career diplomat, and having been loyal all through to the Nehru-Gandhi family of the Congress he would have been the best to take up the role of India’s Foreign Affairs minister. Instead, he shot off his mouth every so often, as documented in the post below. He had to relinquish his portfolio yesterday, after the Volcker report controversy. He won elections just twice from his home state of Rajasthan in a political career spanning close to 25 years. He is currently a member fo the Rajya Sabha & a minister without portfolio, and is facing a judicial probe into the Volcker Committee allegations.
Shivraj Patil, one of the more popular leaders of the Party in his state of Maharashtra, and currently the Home Minister (Minister of Internal Security / Secretary of State) of India should really have not been on the list, for he had won 7 consecutive Lok Sabha elections and was a member of the Lok Sabha from 1980-2004. However, he managed to surprise himself, his party & even his political opponents by losing elections from the Latur constituency just when it mattered most. ‘Loyalty’ won him the day, and the Former Speaker of Lok Sabha (1991-96) was catapulted to one of the most important jobs in the country. Unfortunately, his performance has not been anywhere close to inspiring, as per both independent assessors, like here & here and his Prime Minister, who reportedly gave him less than satisfactory performance grades for his first year performance.
Arjun Singh, once a popular leader from Madhya Pradesh & a claimant to the country’s top executive post 15 years ago, is now a poor shadow of his former self. Old & quite senile, he is spending his days in the HRD ministry doing things that are exactly the opposite of whatever his predecessor, Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi of the BJP did in his term. After losing 3 consecutive general elections (1996-99), he stopped contesting popular polls & is now a member of the House of Elders.
In sharp contrast to the other senior ministers in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet, P Chidambaram, India's Finance Minister is a popular leader in his constituency. His standing in the entire state of Tamil Nadu is insignificant, however, as in a state dominated by Dravidian politics, the Harvard-educated Chidambaram remains very much an outsider. Chidambaram, however is seen as one of those ministers who came to have the Finance Minister's post not because of his 'loyalty' to the Congress or the Nehru-Gandhi family but due to his sheer ability and track record as a previous Commerce Minister (1991-96) & Finance Minister (1996-98). He is being seen as doing reasonably good work, within the limitations of coalition politics and is a member of an extremely qualified team. However, he is not a trained economist unlike the other members of the team, Dr. Manmohan Singh (see above), Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission) & Dr. Y V Reddy (Governer, Reserve Bank of India). When compared to most of his predecessors, however, Mr. Chidambaram is extremely erudite & open to reason.
Right at the top of the Union Government is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a former RBI Governer & Professor at Delhi School of Economics. He was brought into active politics about 15 years ago and has since managed to maintain his respect for being a good economist and generally clean, though the performance of his government since he took over in May 2004 has left much to be desired. He suffers from the double handicap of being a political light-weight in his party as well as not being a popular leader among masses. His lone attempt to get elected to the Lok Sabha from the posh & well-educated South Delhi constituency in 1999 was disastrous enough to persuade him to never contest again. He wouldn’t have been Prime Minister if Sonia Gandhi wasn’t foreign born and he was a bigger political force. Mr. Manmohan Singh was a good candidate as a Congress Prime Minister, in the event Sonia Gandhi couldn’t make it, because he was such a light-weight and uncontroversial person that he was easily acceptable to most factions in the party. This is precisely the reason why the likes of Pranab Mukherjee & Arjun Singh could not make it to the hot seat this time. This was the same reason that led to Late Mr. P V Narasimha Rao being cajoled back from retirement to become India’s 9th Prime Minister as influential & popular mass leaders such as Sharad Pawar, Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia & also Pranab Mukherjee were all vying for the Prime Minister’s chair after Rajiv Gandhi’s death.
This is not to say that Congress has a long list of popular leaders with a mass base that they can use to win elections on their own. Pranab Mukherjee, an extremely influential leader in the Congress Party & Defense Minister of the country, also often seen as No. 2 in the union cabinet after Mr. Manmohan Singh, is a virtual political non-entity in his home state of West Bengal. His party is often a distant third in the state, far behind the Left combine which has ruled the state uninterrupted for close to 30 years now and Trinamool Congress, a breakaway section of Congress party led by Mamata Banerjee. He has won Lok Sabha elections just once (in 2004) in his long political career.
Natwar Singh, the just deposed External Affairs Minister, was probably one of the most qualified for his job. As a career diplomat, and having been loyal all through to the Nehru-Gandhi family of the Congress he would have been the best to take up the role of India’s Foreign Affairs minister. Instead, he shot off his mouth every so often, as documented in the post below. He had to relinquish his portfolio yesterday, after the Volcker report controversy. He won elections just twice from his home state of Rajasthan in a political career spanning close to 25 years. He is currently a member fo the Rajya Sabha & a minister without portfolio, and is facing a judicial probe into the Volcker Committee allegations.
Shivraj Patil, one of the more popular leaders of the Party in his state of Maharashtra, and currently the Home Minister (Minister of Internal Security / Secretary of State) of India should really have not been on the list, for he had won 7 consecutive Lok Sabha elections and was a member of the Lok Sabha from 1980-2004. However, he managed to surprise himself, his party & even his political opponents by losing elections from the Latur constituency just when it mattered most. ‘Loyalty’ won him the day, and the Former Speaker of Lok Sabha (1991-96) was catapulted to one of the most important jobs in the country. Unfortunately, his performance has not been anywhere close to inspiring, as per both independent assessors, like here & here and his Prime Minister, who reportedly gave him less than satisfactory performance grades for his first year performance.
Arjun Singh, once a popular leader from Madhya Pradesh & a claimant to the country’s top executive post 15 years ago, is now a poor shadow of his former self. Old & quite senile, he is spending his days in the HRD ministry doing things that are exactly the opposite of whatever his predecessor, Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi of the BJP did in his term. After losing 3 consecutive general elections (1996-99), he stopped contesting popular polls & is now a member of the House of Elders.
In sharp contrast to the other senior ministers in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet, P Chidambaram, India's Finance Minister is a popular leader in his constituency. His standing in the entire state of Tamil Nadu is insignificant, however, as in a state dominated by Dravidian politics, the Harvard-educated Chidambaram remains very much an outsider. Chidambaram, however is seen as one of those ministers who came to have the Finance Minister's post not because of his 'loyalty' to the Congress or the Nehru-Gandhi family but due to his sheer ability and track record as a previous Commerce Minister (1991-96) & Finance Minister (1996-98). He is being seen as doing reasonably good work, within the limitations of coalition politics and is a member of an extremely qualified team. However, he is not a trained economist unlike the other members of the team, Dr. Manmohan Singh (see above), Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission) & Dr. Y V Reddy (Governer, Reserve Bank of India). When compared to most of his predecessors, however, Mr. Chidambaram is extremely erudite & open to reason.
To look at pretty good article on how these senior ministers & some more in the Union Cabinet have performed in the last year & a half of UPA government, follow this link.
posted by Vimal at
12:59 pm
1 Comments:
Nitin,
Thanks a lot for your views. Indeed, these ministers were parachuted into the Rajya Sabha because they either lost elections (like Shivraj Patil & P M Sayeed) or were incapable of winning one (Manmohan Singh, Natwar Singh & Arjun Singh) and had to be in the cabinet because of their 'seniority' & 'loyalty'. It is indeed a subversion of democracy that such people are our senior ministers today. But what is most apalling is that they are not doing a good job at all, despite probably being the 'best' candidates available to the Congress party for these positions. If this is the performance that these ministers can deliver, one would rather have popular mass leaders such as Sharad Pawar (even he is past his best, and is not really known as having a clean image) at one of these senior positions. Highly capable & still young (by the standards of Indian politics) Congress leaders such as Mani Shankar Aiyar (he would do a great job as an external affairs minister) or Ghulam Nabi Azad (as Home Minister for he would be wasted as Chief Minister of J&K) should be given more responsibility.
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