Cabinet making

Protesting his absolute innocence, Natwar Singh had resigned from foreign ministership in November 2005. In the nine months it has taken to get the first firm prime ministerial hint that a foreign minister will be appointed, the inquiry into the Volcker scandal is reportedly almost complete. Therefore we may have a new foreign minister around the same time as the guilt or otherwise of the previous incumbent is established. It8217;s a little hard to see beauty in this symmetry, though. If the problem was that all this time the Congress could not find a person whose CV fitted the job, it is a more telling comment on the party8217;s top leadership than anything the BJP can come up with.

If the BJP were doing its job, which it is not, it would have noticed that while Natwar Singh8217;s departure left a hole in Dr Singh8217;s cabinet and that there are several other holes filled by stoutly square pegs. Extensive political carpentry has therefore been overdue. But the compulsions have been never greater. The government has had a particularly rough time of late and election talk is already being heard around water coolers in the corridors of power. There8217;s a jaded, tired look to the cabinet, made worse by the fact that some of the jaded, tired cabinet ministers are finding just enough energy to appear undisciplined.

The argument cannot forever be that some of the obvious Congress candidates for the chop have to stay because of 8216;politics8217;. Winning elections is what politics is all about. It is bad enough that crucial remits like coal and labour are in hands of allied party ministers who are very serious about not taking their jobs seriously. They, and others like them, can8217;t be removed. But the Congress can ensure 8212; to take two examples 8212; that unlike now it is policy that looks beautifully turned out at the home ministry. And that at HRD, reservations are also expressed about the state of higher education see, in this context, the letter written by the PM8217;s science advisor to Dr Singh we print in the oped page. There are young Congressmen eager to prove their ministerial mettle but consigned to backbenches. They can be ministers of state, at least. Why did the party get them elected otherwise? And at this rate how does the party propose to get reelected?