There are only 55 ministries, departments, secretariats and offices under the jurisdiction of the Union government. That is what the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 states in its First Schedule. So why should the UPA government need 78 ministers and a prime minister to oversee these ministries and departments?
Theoretically, then, the size of the Union council of ministers can be reduced. It may also be logical to consider lowering the cap on the number of ministers in the Union government, currently placed at 82.
Ruling party politicians and senior bureaucrats will explain that even though the total number of ministries and departments is only 55, the burden of administrative responsibilities is huge and will easily require the services of up to 82 ministers. A government formed with the support of different political parties also places demands on the prime minister to provide adequate representation of the coalition partners in the council of ministers. This automatically raises the number of ministers a coalition government needs to appoint. So, it is argued, if Manmohan Singh has so far managed to work with a council of 78 ministers, he deserves a pat on his back for keeping his government relatively lean.
Jawahar Lal Nehru’s first council of ministers had only 16 members. Half a century later, Atal Bihari Vajpayee ran his government with more than 70 ministers. Shortly before him, PV Narasimha Rao had over 60 ministers. Seen against the growth in population and the increase in the responsibilities of the government over these years, the rise in the strength of the council of ministers may look very reasonable. The number of civil servants, for instance, has gone up by a much bigger margin over this period.
But what Manmohan Singh has managed to do in respect of the size of his council of ministers over the last few years is an indication of how much more lean the Union government could be at the top. Consider the following. He has 30 cabinet ministers, eight ministers of state with independent charge and 40 ministers of state. There are no deputy ministers in his council.
Till he went for the by-pass heart surgery on January 24, Dr Singh was in charge of six ministries and two departments. These were the ministries of finance, information and broadcasting, personnel, public grievances and pension, environment and forests, coal and planning. The two departments are of atomic energy and space, which most prime ministers in independent India have kept under their charge. It was only after Dr Singh went for his surgery that the finance portfolio was shifted to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee as his additional responsibility.
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If his health had not come in the way, Dr Singh would have continued to hold charge of the finance ministry after P Chidambaram was shifted to the home ministry. And he may well get the finance ministry back under his control once he resumes work after full recovery form the surgery.
Critics might argue that Manmohan Singh is overburdened with work as a result of these six ministries and two departments remaining with him. Does he need to expand his council of ministers? Well, take a look at the work load of his current cabinet ministers. Only five of his cabinet ministers have two ministries under them — Kapil Sibal, Vayalar Ravi, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Pawar. Pranab Mukherjee too has two ministries right now, but he may be left with only one after Dr Singh reclaims the finance ministry. In addition, there is Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, who is at present a cabinet minister without portfolio.
If five cabinet ministers can be asked to run two ministries (nobody, mind you, is complaining about their effectiveness or efficiency because of their dual responsibility), there is no reason why a few other ministers in the Cabinet cannot be given additional charge of a new ministry. Indeed, with such a move, the government can completely do without ministers of state with independent charge.
Manmohan Singh will still need a cabinet reshuffle. But he may not need to expand his council of ministers. He has established that with 30 cabinet ministers, a government of 49 ministries, two departments, two secretariats, the PM’s Office and the Planning Commission can be run quite effectively if only a few of the cabinet ministers are made to carry the responsibility of overseeing more than one ministry. In the process, the total strength of the council of ministers can be reduced to 70 or even less.
In his last days as prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee got the legislative change to put a ceiling on the size of the council of ministers at 15 per cent of the strength of the Lok Sabha. Manmohan Singh could move a new legislative bill to bring down the ceiling to 12 per cent of the effective strength of the Lok Sabha. He has shown that this is possible.