Vasundhra beats Modi in leading the leanest cabinet

Experts demand two per cent cap on Cabinet and MoS rank

The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is one of the leanest in recent times to hold the reins of power at the Centre. It is also the leanest when compared with most state governments, except the Vasundhara Raje-led Rajasthan government.

An analysis of the sizes of the council of ministers of some of the bigger states indicates how it is not just Modi, but most Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministers lead some of the leanest Cabinets in the country.

The 91st amendment of the Constitution, enacted in 2003, mandated that the total number of ministers, including the PM, in the council of ministers should not exceed 15 per cent of the total number of members in the Lok Sabha. The council of ministers shouldn't have more than 81 ministers in a house of 543 members of Parliament (MPs).

The provision also applied to state governments, but with a caveat that the number of ministers, including the chief minister, should not be less than 12. This was to prevent centralisation of power in the hands of the CM in states with smaller legislative Assemblies, such as Goa or northeastern states.

Let alone 15 per cent, the number of ministers in BJP governments at the Centre and Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh barely crosses 10 per cent of the strength of the Lok Sabha or the respective legislative Assemblies.

This is in contrast to states such as All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-ruled Tamil Nadu and Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance-led Maharashtra.

A lean council of ministers has, in some cases, also meant the chief minister taking care of several portfolios. For instance, Rajasthan CM Raje handles a whopping 44 departments. Her council of ministers has just 12 ministers, the leanest in the country. Similarly, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee also runs a lean Cabinet and is in charge of 10 key portfolios.

The Modi-led government is the second leanest in the country. It has 45 ministers, including the PM, when it could have accommodated 81. The previous United Progressive Alliance government led by Manmohan Singh had 72 ministers.

“That BJP governments, both at the Centre and in states, are lean is consistent with our vision of ‘maximum governance and minimum government’. It reduces the burden on the public exchequer,” says BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma.

However, some ministers in the Modi government privately complain of being overburdened as they are saddled with more than one portfolio. There are, however, several others in the Modi Cabinet with little work. That the PM trusts senior bureaucrats than some of his ministers suggests that a lean government in Modi's case might also be a result of the shallow talent pool in the BJP.

Constitutional expert Subhash C Kashyap disagrees that leaner Cabinets lead to overburdening of ministers. He said the problem was the proliferation of departments and ministries created over the years to sustain a bloated bureaucracy. “Ministers are not burdened because of the 15 per cent rule, but because of artificial creation of departments.”

Kashyap, a former secretary-general of Lok Sabha, says the Constitution Commission had recommended the number be restricted to 10 per cent. “But the government of that day felt that it should be 15 per cent.”

Kashyap is of the view that the 15 per cent limit shouldn't be tinkered with, but it is time another recommendation of the Constitution Commission was implemented.

The Commission had called for limiting the number of persons with Cabinet and minister of state rank to just two per cent of the strength of the Lok Sabha or the legislative Assemblies. However, the Commission’s recommendation was not accepted. “The result is that those who do not get ministerial berths because of the 15 per cent rule find their way to becoming chairpersons of corporations and commissions getting all the perks and privileges of a minister from the government,” Kashyap points out.

According to former Rajya Sabha secretary-general Yogendra Narain, who was also the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh (UP), there is no need to look at the 15 per cent Constitutional benchmark as the ideal size of a Cabinet. “A leaner and meaner council of ministers helps in better coordination and management by the PM or CMs.”

Narain recounts in UP once even the Department of Youth and Welfare was split just so to accommodate more ministers. “The present dispensation at the Centre is perfectly correct in keeping a small ministerial team,” he says, adding coalition governments have led to jumbo-sized Cabinets.

“Lesser number of ministers prevents horse trading and we have cleaner politics and more effective administration,” he notes.

In the mid-1990s, there were 93 ministers in the UP government. In other words, one out of every four MLAs in the Assembly was a minister. “It was very difficult for an officer like me to even remember their names,” Narain says.