The cabinet reshuffle on Sunday has another underlying message besides the compulsions of accommodating state-level aspirations and political requirements.
Strengthening of the domain of Ministers of State (MoS) with independent charge by promoting those seen as pro-reform can clearly be seen as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intentions on this front.
If those in the government come out correct, next Lok Sabha elections would be held in 2014, as scheduled. With this premise, this UPA government has about one and half years to deliver on the economic reforms platform.
The initial work has already been done by the recent steps on reducing petroleum subsidies and pushing relaxation in FDI norms in different areas including multi-brand retail, pension and insurance.
Each minister handling critical portfolios, especially economic ministries, is expected to take this agenda forward expeditiously. The actual results would be seen in the coming months but on the ground at least, this is the plan.
A look at the MoS independent charge constitution at present and promotions from this segment to the cabinet rank, gives an idea of what the government wants.
Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot are the two prominent faces with power and corporate affairs portfolios respectively, who were nurtured as MoS and have now got independent charge. These two ministers are being looked at as the ones supporting the pro-reform agenda along with P Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar, Anand Sharma and Kapil Sibal as cabinet ministers at the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA).
Power ministry has to play a critical role in furthering prime minister’s office’s plans to rejuvenate the sector by effectively tackling fuel linkages and debt problem of the distribution companies.
Similarly, Pilot will have to complete the critical work associated with the Companies Bill and ensure that it is passed by Parliament at the earliest.
The other ministers elevated to this category are youth affairs and sports minister Jitendra Singh, drinking water and sanitation minister Bharatsingh Madhavsingh Solanki and small and medium enterprises minister K H Muniappa.
The two new faces as MoS independent charge are I&B minister Manish Tewari and K Chiranjeevi. While tourism minister Chiranjeevi has got the position on political considerations, Tewari apparently is another leader which might be groomed for bigger roles in future.
The upward movement of Dinsha Patel, Ajay Maken, M M Pallam Raju and Ashwani Kumar is also being seen as part of the process to create a pro-reform ambience at the top government level.
While Patel would be looking after ministry of mines, Maken has been given the charge of housing and urban poverty alleviation, Raju would handle human resource development and Kumar has been made minister for law and justice.
Prime minister Singh, who has been trying to push the reform agenda speedily for quite some time without any success due to the opposition mostly from earlier ally in the government Trinamool Congress, has indicated number of times in the recent past that he would like to go if not allowed to take the intended measures rather than leading a government with policy paralysis.
The job ahead is certainly tough because of the mercurial support from Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. However, the idea is to continue with the tough decisions before the election fever grips the political parties.
Building consensus over Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Direct Taxes Code (DTC) implementation, insurance and pension reforms and measures to boost foreign investments further are among the top most items in the list.
With cabinet reshuffle now complete, the government would like to move ahead on its reform steps now.
Budget for 2013-14, therefore, would be a difficult test. It will have to be populist and also growth-oriented. This will be the last budget before Lok Sabha polls and will have to fulfill the political expectations of the parties in the government.
Simultaneously, the government can’t afford to let fiscal consolidation and growth prospects go awry.
The real challenge would be to balance the two with the help of the core team created by the Prime Minister with the help of this reshuffle.