Old wine, new bottle: Modi's cabinet is about politics, not governance

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed his Cabinet five months ago, it was touted as one of the leanest Union Council of ministers, with just about 44 members. Indeed the size of the Cabinet then seemed particularly small compared to that of the UPA’s which had over 80 ministers appointed at various levels. Of course the UPA had to accommodate several recalcitrant allies who were accustomed to dictating terms to both Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Modi never had such compulsions. Yet his expanded Council of ministers now has 66 members, and it appears poised to gain enough flab to match the UPA on the weighing scale. The NDA, it seems, doesn’t want to distinguish itself from the UPA in this respect either. [caption id=“attachment_1795365” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Reuters[/caption] When Modi began with 44 members in his Cabinet, we were told the BJP was implementing its resolve of having “minimum government, maximum governance”. The BJP proudly publicised its strategy of having several related or even unrelated ministries clubbed together and handed over fewer ministers. The idea was every BJP minister would handle more responsibilities than the UPA counterparts. This was clearly a false start. For instance, it is well nigh impossible for one individual to supervise any of these sets of ministries/departments– (finance and defence), (Telecom, IT and Law), (Road Transport, Highway, Shipping, Rural Development), (Steel,Mines, Labour and Employment), (Coal and Power). Some of these combinations of portfolios were created in the name of synergy. However, the work load itself became too much for one person to handle. So Rural Development has been taken away from Nitin Gadkari and given to the MP from,Haryana Birender . Singh. Defence Ministry was in any case being held as additional charge by Arun Jaitley and now goes to Manohar Parriker. Defence always needs a person of impeccable integrity given the temptations offered by the notorious global arms industry. Parriker is seen as ideal fit in the given circumstance. Jaitley will be assisted in a Finance ministry by Jayant Sinha who is inducted as Minister of State. Jayant Sinha, son of Yashwant Sinha, is seen as very competent and comes with extensive experience of global business and finance. Jaitley could easily delegate work in critical areas to Jayant. The only case of a Cabinet member being removed possibly for lack of performance is in the Railway ministry. Sadanand Gowda from Karnataka has been replaced by Suresh Prabhu who had distinguished himself as a very competent Cabinet minister under Vajpayee’s NDA. He had grown so much in popularity that the Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thakeray had decided to pull him out of the government at one stage. Modi wants to use Suresh Prabhu to transform and modernise Indian Railways. This will be Prabhu’s big test. So it has now become clear that for faster decision making, a finer division of labour was required. In any case, the concept of minimum government floated earlier by the BJP was somewhat conceptually dubious from the beginning. Minimum government, in the classical sense, is understood as one in which much of the public sector is privatised and the government itself is limited to providing basic public goods such as law and order, national security and other essential services like primary education, health etc. In short, a sharp reduction in the size of government staff, in areas where the government should not be present in the first place, can truly help achieve the ideal of “minimum government”. This was never Modi’s intent. Modi’s “minimum government” promise merely seemed to be one where bureaucratic red tape would be minimised, even if the size of the government remained nearly as it was under the UPA. In effect, there is really no real change from the past pattern, purely in terms of numbers. Overall, the expansion of the Cabinet has actually turned out to be largely a political signalling exercise. It caters to the requirements of BJP’s new, assertive election strategy which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to shape in mission mode. What is this new politics? The new strategy of the BJP seeks to further consolidate Modi’s appeal among the Dalits, Backward caste groups and the Jat community across North and Central India. If one carefully examines the new entrants to the government, there are Dalits and Backward Caste MPs from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and even Punjab. By inducting a Dalit MP from Punjab, Vijay Sampla, the BJP is virtually signalling it may be able to do without the support of the Akali a Dal in the assembly elections due in 2016 end. In any case, Dalit Sikhs, traditionally Congress supporters, are emerging as a major force in Punjab.The BJP has an keen eye on them. Modi has acknowledged the support of the Dalits and backward castes in Maharashtra who helped the BJP double its vote share in the recently held assembly election. He has done so by inducting Hansraj Ahir from Nanded who has also proved to be a very active Parliamentarian and is credited with bringing the details of the coal scam before the Lok Sabha. Ahir is also widely acknowledged for bringing probably the largest number of private members bill in the previous Lok Sabha. Modi has also recognised that the Haryana electorate had helped the BJP treble its vote share in the just concluded assembly poll which gave the party an unprecedented majority. He therefore inducted Chaudhary Birender Singh, a Jat leader from Haryana. The BJP CM, Manohar Lal Khattar is essentially a Punjabi and Modi obviously felt obliged to compensate the dominant Jat community of Haryana by bringing one of their leaders at the Centre with the important portfolio of Rural Development. Similarly, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti from Uttar Pradesh , is a backward caste religious preacher, a la Uma Bharti. As a popular preacher she helped the BJP garner Dalit and backward caste votes in Central UP. So a lot of pronounced caste footprint can be seen in the current cabinet expansion. The new Cabinet seems to have about half a dozen competent ministers who are manning critical areas. Modi’s style is such that he possibly doesn’t need more than half a dozen efficient ministers in critical areas of governance. By and large, the highly centralised PMO continues to play a pivotal role in all major decisions whether it is deciding on the gas price, diesel price decontrol, signing of WTO agreements, crucial defence purchases and so on. The irony, of course, is for all the talk about a new politics, the expanded cabinet carries a strong whiff of deja vu. With its carefully calibrated election calculations, and reliance on a few good men in key positions, Narendra Modi’s sarkar seems like a new bottle for a wine of old Indira Gandhi vintage.