No sense of renewal

The new council of ministers reflects the strengths and weaknesses of the new coalition that is in office. It has a good mix of dalits, tribals, Muslims, backward castes and farmers' representatives, and though some parts of the country are under-represented, a fairly good regional mix too.

There is no shortage of seasoned war-horses with ability and experience of government, in people like Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar and P Chidambaram.

The new council of ministers is also smaller than the outgoing council, but too large to convey any intention of trimming the size of the government "" though the objective here might be to give the alliance partners more than their due as a means of underwriting the stability of the coalition.

Where the exercise falls short is in conveying the sense of a new beginning. The missing element is young blood, especially since Sonia Gandhi had criticised the last council for consisting of a bunch of oldies. If anything, the new Cabinet has a higher average age than the last one.

This naturally dampens the enthusiasm that the country felt at Manmohan Singh's appointment, because he symbolises a new kind of politics. Instead, the council has history-sheeters, people who have been rejected by voters in the elections, and others whose primary objective will be to milk their portfolios for personal gain.

Even while recognising that politics is the art of the possible, it cannot be that Dr Singh will look around at his new colleagues and feel a sense of satisfaction.

There is no good reason why Arjun Singh and Natwar Singh could not be put out to pasture, and one simple expedient would have been to announce an age limit of 70 for everyone other than the prime minister.

Nor is there any reason why greater representation could not have been given to the technocratic equivalent of the Arun Jaitleys and Arun Shouries in the Congress, people who can be entrusted with the thrust areas of policy and asked to show results.

The Congress has no shortage of young blood with good education and energy, but all of it has been overlooked. It is also hard to see in the choice of ministers people who will help rejuvenate the Congress in states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, so there is no grand political design either.

The biggest worry of course is that the ministries that look after specific industries or activities will become instruments for pork barrel politics. It must be hoped that this will not be seen as the price of coalition realpolitik.

Dr Singh, as finance minister in the Rao government, had the courage to speak out publicly against crony capitalism. It must be hoped that he will ask for the highest standards of conduct from his ministerial colleagues, and put in place mechanisms for making this effective policy.