Port(folio) of call

The mathematics has predictably become a little more complex. From their first task of demonstrating a comfortable majority in the 14th Lok Sabha — simple addition, really — members of the Congress-led coalition are now furiously working their calculators. Reports are rife with rumours of complicated formulae to determine the number of cabinet berths each ally would be entitled to. To this, Laloo Prasad Yadav, whose carefully constructed socio-political alliance delivered Bihar to the United Progressive Alliance, has added a caveat. Remember, he says, his RJD has the second most populous contingent in the alliance, implying it is a rightful claimant to choice portfolios in the cabinet and extravagant packages for their state. Others are detailing their strife in helping the Congress forge a pre-poll alliance, the demands of their geographical roots, etc, to secure plum posts. Prime minister designate Manmohan Singh must dig deep into his professorial past and produce a lecture in game theory — in the simple truth that a coalition’s greater common good would expand considerably if they’d stop slicing up government as if it were a pie.

Certainly, coalition government is an exercise in negotiation. But that negotiation is about an agenda, a list of objectives that constituents commit themselves to. By demanding proportional representation in the council of ministers, alliance members appear to be carving up governance into satrapies — as they did in assorted third front governments in the past couple of decades. This United Progressive Alliance coalition is qualitatively different from those ragtag alliances. It is not just that it is led by a party numerically much stronger in the Lok Sabha. But in these elections the various constituents of the UPA also coalesced around the Congress — whether it be the JMM in Jharkhand, the DMK in Tamil Nadu, the RJD in Bihar, the NCP in Maharashtra or the TRS in Andhra Pradesh. These regional players have, in other words, committed themselves to Congress leadership.

It is time they heeded a key principle of parliamentary politics. The prime minister must be allowed his prerogative to constitute a council of ministers that he feels would best serve the common minimum programme being drafted and that best ulitises the experience various contenders bring. In fact, Singh need only glance back at the NDA, during whose two terms at the Centre the BJP as the leader of the alliance kept key portfolios like finance, home and external affairs. Balancing the politics of regional representation with the requirements of governance is best left to the prime minister.