Calling up the faithful

Manmohan Singh's first substantive Cabinet reshuffle increases noticeably the presence of the Congress in the UPA coalition government; it brings into government a number of party faithfuls (A R Antulay, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Vayalar Ravi et al.); it introduces into government some others who have been ready for office for some time (like Murli Deora and Jairam Ramesh); and it cuts to size ministers who are perceived to have stepped out of line (notably Mani Shankar Aiyar and Renuka Chowdhury); but it does not address some expected changes at the Cabinet level""like bringing in a full-time external affairs minister or replacing the home minister. To the extent that the job is not complete, more changes could be expected after the Budget session""but ever since Indira Gandhi's days, this has been a tactic used to keep hope alive in those who have been ignored.

The reshuffle achieves some other objectives as well. It fills the posts that had become vacant following the death or resignation of a number of ministers (P M Sayeed at power, Shibu Soren in Mines, Jagdish Tytler for overseas Indians, Sunil Dutt at sports and youth affairs, and so on). It also throws a bone to the humbled Lalu Prasad, in the promotion of his protege at company affairs to full Cabinet status. And it brings into the government GK Vasan, who will be important in the forthcoming assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. The Prime Minister and the party leadership have reason to be satisfied with the exercise.

Nevertheless, some questions arise. Other than showing respect to a party stalwart, what earthly purpose is served by persisting with Arjun Singh at human resource development? Certainly, his record there in the last 20 months does him and the government no credit. Also, if it were not bad enough that there is conflict of interest in Dayanidhi Maran being given ministerial responsibility in a sector where his family has substantial business interests, the country now has a petroleum minister who is a long-time friend of the enterprise that runs the country's largest petroleum business. Mr Deora has started well by asserting that his immediate task is to restore the public sector oil marketing companies to profitability""his predecessor's achievement in re-introducing price control for oil prices has been to hobble firms like Indian Oil, which as a result has suffered the unthinkable and plunged into the red. But he should know that he will be closely watched for any absence of neutrality in his decisions concerning the different players in the industry.

The other point on which the exercise can be criticised is the lack of concern for the public image of ministers and for propriety. There may be nothing technically wrong with inducting Mr Antulay and Mr Soren, but the issue is not technicality any more than it was in the case of Mr Quattrocchi. Equally, eyebrows will surely have been raised by the induction into the Cabinet of a sitting state governor, Mr Shinde""shedding all pretence that politicians who are appointed governors are supposed to have given up active politics and lost their party affiliation. Finally, it is worth noting that the law minister has not been dropped""a clear signal, if one were needed, that Mr Bhardwaj's actions in giving Mr Quattrocchi a clean chit and allowing him to get access to some Rs 20 crore in frozen bank accounts, have not annoyed either the Congress party president or the Prime Minister.