Bursting out

The ministerial berth, once one of the most respected of positions, has been pitifully reduced. It is now the most widely distributed perk o...

The ministerial berth, once one of the most respected of positions, has been pitifully reduced. It is now the most widely distributed perk of public life. In Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh has managed to expand an already record-breaking jumbo cabinet. Meghalaya is setting a record of sorts as well. The allegiance of almost all of Chief Minister B. B. Lyngdoh8217;s supporters in the House has been assured with a largesse of Cabinet berths.

And in Himachal Pradesh, Virbhadra Singh8217;s future hinged on a solitary independent MLA. Whose support was bought with a ministerial berth. Unfortunately for him, he needed one more to prove his majority. Obviously, governance is not a priority with either the party chiefs or the legislators they buy. The recent discovery in Uttar Pradesh of a hitherto unknown species, the minister without portfolio, underscores the point. So does the fact that the initial expansion sparked off a struggle for Lebensraum among the new ministers. The leading interest in such a system is booty, theleading issue the division of the spoils. And the leading loser the voter, the man who footed the bill for the election that brought them to power and will continue to foot various bills for ministry infrastructure, accommodation befitting the dignity of high office, cars and security.

In an age when government is constantly being urged to roll back, to downsize and hand over its less important functions to other agencies, it is ironic that ministries across the country are energetically expanding themselves. There is excellent logic behind the hitherto accepted norm that not more than one in ten legislators should be a minister. Larger ministries become logistical nightmares and get in the way of their own work. As the Uttar Pradesh ministry approaches the three-digit mark, it would be interesting to work out just how much time the Chief Secretary will have to spend on the phone, simply coordinating between various wings of the government. It will account for all his waking hours.

This tendency to regardministerial berths as bargaining counters or handy currency for payoffs, an idea first mooted by Laloo Prasad Yadav, has been appropriated by all parties. Now, it is threatening to come to central politics. The BJP has sought the support of more than twenty parties, which will have to be paid off in the approved manner. All of them will seek some representation in the Cabinet. The AIADMK has already indicated that it might want the specific Cabinet berths that were held by the TMC and the DMK. If such a trend were to continue, eventually existing ministries will have to be split, because the government cannot endlessly invent new roles and functions for itself merely to keep its ministers happy. In the future, to take the argument to its logical conclusion, there might be three Law Ministers, one each for civil, criminal and Constitutional law. It is time to check this headlong rush to spawn forth more and more ministers. The political class should realise that the numbers game has to end at some point.Finally, it has to face an increasingly displeased electorate. And its humour will not improve if it is constantly subjected to the distressing spectacle of their representatives selling themselves for power and pelf.