K. Natwar Singh, as minister without portfolio, has distinguished predecessors.In 1964, when Jawaharlal Nehru fell ill, Lal Bahadur Shastri was brought back to the Cabinet as minister without portfolio. In 2002, Murasoli Maran (DMK) took ill. He died the following year, spending his final months as minister without portfolio. In 2003, too, Mamata Banerjee re-entered the NDA government as minister without portfolio. The Railway Ministry, which she had surrendered on resigning in 2001, was with Nitish Kumar of JD(U). Coalition contradictions also caused K. Chandrashekhara Rao’s six-month ministry without portfolio. The TRS leader was given Shipping when the UPA was sworn in but gave it up when the Congress realised it had also promised it to the DMK. With Natwar becoming minister without portfolio, the prime minister has taken charge of the External Affairs Ministry. The appropriate precedent for this probably goes back to P.V. Narasimha Rao’s prime ministry.From 1993 till he died in 1995, Dinesh Singh was India’s foreign minister. He spent the last phase battling a terminal illness. In this period, Rao, assisted by an able foreign secretary, J.N. Dixit, ran and reshaped India’s foreign policy.Could history be repeating itself?
