PM settles for tweaking Cabinet

After six postponements, the much-hyped, long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle announced today was both tentative and hesitant. Coming on the eve o...

After six postponements, the much-hyped, long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle announced today was both tentative and hesitant. Coming on the eve of what will probably be the most stormy Parliament session during the UPA8217;s tenure, the reshuffle, being explained as a 8220;holding operation,8221; neither carried the PM8217;s stamp nor signalled an assertion of his authority. It also wasn8217;t a mid-course correction to give more weight to performance.

Perhaps, the only message implicit was that the Prime Minister, who has decided to keep External Affairs with him following Natwar Singh8217;s exit, will be working overtime in the coming weeks and months on the foreign portfolio: from the Iran vote next week to the proposed George Bush visit in February and the nuclear deal with the US in between.

This is not the first time that the Prime Minister has kept the Foreign Affairs portfolio. Jawaharlal Nehru retained it and so did PV Narasimha Rao for a spell. In the last few days, a protocol problem was being raised8212;that the PM would have to meet all officials and dignitaries who come to India8212;but that was obviously sorted out.

Coal is a world away from the MEA but Singh is keeping it as a signal to Shibu Soren that his chair is being kept warm lest he get other ideas.

The PM moved Jaipal Reddy from Information and Broadcasting, where he was neither happy nor :effective8221;, to Urban Development which had been held by Ghulam Nabi Azad, now J038;K CM. Reddy also retains Culture.

I038;B goes from Jaipal Reddy to Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, who was not very interested in Water Resources. Munsi has also been given charge of Parliamentary Affairs and he will have to use all his skills to take along the aggressive Left. Coming as he does from West Bengal where elections are due early next year, he has his task cut out.

Santosh Mohan Dev, MOS Independent Charge, Heavy Industries, felt he had not got his due as he had been a full-fledged Cabinet Minister in Narasimha Rao8217;s Cabinet. What is more, there are elections due in Dev8217;s home state Assam early next year. So it was felt that he should be 8220;compensated8221; and Water Resources was shifted to him8212;at least for the time being.

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Similarly, the underemployed Oscar Fernandes was also given additional portfolios of Youth and Sports, a ministry coveted by many with the Commonwealth Games coming on.

Two reasons are being forwarded for the PM8217;s inability to go in for an expansion as expected, even though he had two protracted meetings with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. One is the view that while the reshuffle would please five Congress leaders, who were inducted, it would antagonize 50 others and this would not be politically wise when the PM needs everybody on board given the opposition ahead.

The second factor cited was pressure from Laloo Yadav. The RJD chief is of the view that the heat be kept on Ram Vilas Paswan either to help form a 8220;secular8221; government in Patna after the results on November 22, or to opt out of the UPA at the Centre.