The prime minister has upheld the coalition principle without tweaking policy or integrity, but the exercise has scarcely addressed the challenges that the country faces today.
Congress Spokesperson
In our party and government, people don’t stick to office like lemmings. If there is even a shadow of wrongdoing, they are asked to leave the government
It is farcical to hear a party like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticise the recent Cabinet reshuffle. In our party, the Congress, ministers and MPs abide by party discipline. In the BJP, they apply the power and blackmail principle. Not so long ago, in November, when Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa tried to expand his Cabinet, the party chief whip quit his post because his name was not among the probables; an MLA told reporters that he was an aspirant for a Cabinet berth and would decide on his plans if he was not inducted; and two groups of supporters of MLAs demonstrated before Yeddyurappa’s house demanding their leaders be made ministers.
In our party, the Congress president and the prime minister sit together and take a view on who should be made minister. This is preceded by a stock-taking exercise. In this round, the PM has said another reshuffle will follow. On the basis of the party and government’s current priorities, an administrative exercise has been launched, the first phase of which was put in place last Thursday. More such moves will follow.
What does the reshuffle tell us? That our party would like to see in place a government that is innovative, youthful and bursting with ideas on clean, effective governance. Experience and youth have been judiciously balanced. Some regions are yet to be represented in government — this too will follow. All major communities and religious groups have been represented, which is as it should be in a multi-ethnic country like ours.
In our party and government, people don’t stick to office like lemmings. If there is even a shadow of wrongdoing, they are asked to leave the government. They are asked to wait outside government till their name is cleared. But the BJP? The income tax department, Central Bureau of Intelligence, the Enforcement Directorate, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence: which agency will it need to shame the BJP into getting its leaders to demit office?
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Key infrastructure ministries have new faces. Ministers performed well in one department so they have been moved to work the same magic in their new charge. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. In the prime minister we have an economist of world renown, who is applauded for his understanding by world leaders — I am referring to the standing ovation he got at the G20 summit. But the brilliance of our prime minister is lost on the Indian opposition. In the Congress president we have someone whose complete and unwavering focus is on the poor and the disadvantaged. India’s ministers have this dual task – of translating the vision of these two leaders.
The effects of this are already being seen. Not only was a Congress-led government elected to power for a second time by the people, but also its mandate is progressive, inclusive and caring. We listen to what the people are telling us, translate that in terms of our party’s thinking and implement policies. We take care to prepare our members for a generational leadership change, by giving them responsibility in the government so that they understand how systems work. Whatever our ministers do is according to the law of the land, on the basis of rule of law. There is no room for arbitrariness, favouritism and giving in to pressure groups. Our party president has even said that chief ministers should do away with discretionary quotas. Some governments, on the other hand, run on discretion – which for them, is the better part of valour.
We have a coalition government and both in party and government, we are sensitive to what this means. We don’t try to impose our writ on the conduct of ministers of the allied parties. Equally, we don’t tweak policy – or standards of integrity – for the sake of staying in power.
I believe the Congress president has upheld the coalition dharma in full while consulting with the prime minister on how the council of ministers should be constituted. I also think honesty, efficiency and performance have been rewarded. Ultimately it is always about giving the people of India the highest standards of clean governance.
BJP Spokesperson
The Congress party’s decision has sent out the signal that there is a complete absence of political will to provide governance and address the current challenges
The recent decision by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to shuffle his Cabinet has been aptly described by some independent thinkers as shuffling deck chairs on a sinking ship. The decision has not achieved anything and it has even confused members of the Congress party who have been included or promoted in the Cabinet.
For one, there is no signal of the government’s intent to put in place what can be considered an effective team of ministers to address the pressing issues of today — price rise, corruption and governance. The Congress party and the prime minister have been talking about bringing down the average age of Cabinet ministers, but this much-discussed announcement was not in evidence after the reassignment of portfolios.
In the decision, the criteria for performing and non-performing members of the Cabinet just didn’t matter. In fact, the Congress party’s decision has sent out the signal that there is a complete absence of political will to provide governance, to address the challenges that the nation is facing today. There were expectations that the Cabinet reshuffle would be done keeping in view the recent corruption charges that have come up and issues like the food price rise.
Above all, there are many Congress party members who are unhappy with the reshuffle. It is also true that some Cabinet members are also dissatisfied with the reassignment of portfolios. There are many people within the Cabinet who are unsure if they have been promoted. The case is the same for the alliance partners who are also dissatisfied by the decisions made by the government in the Cabinet reshuffle. There are many alliance partners who are wondering where they stand in the confusion that was worst confounded by this Cabinet reshuffle.
We would have thought that this entire exercise by the Union government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would make the government come out with such a message that it is serious about fighting corruption — but that doesn’t seem evident. The year 2010 was the year of corruption scandals starting from the 2G spectrum allocation scandal to the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the Adarsh Housing Society scam in which war widows were denied of a legitimate benefit. We were expecting more action in the Cabinet reshuffle or some major changes but it seems that 2011 will be the year of cover-ups. The BJP, along with the entire Opposition has been demanding the formation of a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to investigate the corruption charges but the Union government is adamant about not allowing an investigation by parliamentarians. We are very clear on our demand of setting up a JPC because only it can investigate the larger issues of governance that have come up, and we are not going to change our stand on this.
The issue of rising prices of food and other essential commodities is a big concern for the common people in India but the decisions made in the Cabinet reshuffle have failed to send a clear signal that the Union government is serious about these issues. Food inflation is at an all-time high. The Congress came to power in the name of the aam aadmi, who for the last two years has not heard anything other than promises that prices will come down in the next six months and some astrological predictions about prices. The Union government continues to give inflation data but takes no steps to bring down prices. The BJP has repeatedly demanded that the government must ensure and take immediate and concrete steps to keep food articles at affordable prices.
Now Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given us a promise that there would be another and more expansive change in the Cabinet after the Budget session of the Parliament. The prime minister and the Congress have both missed an opportunity to make the correct changes since there were a lot of expectations this time from the people of this country. In this entire exercise of the Cabinet reshuffle by the government, the only change is that there is a change in the portfolio of Sharad Pawar. Otherwise there is nothing new in this exercise of the government.
As told to Gyan Verma