At the best of times New Delhi is agog with rumours, and when a reshuffle of the Union council of ministers is on cards, they fly thick. At one level it is easy to be cynical and ask whether it matters at all which minister is in charge of which portfolio when so many of them are so busy feathering their nests and worrying about the next election rather than the next generation. Voters in a democracy, much less editorial writers, cannot afford to be so cynical. The quality of a ministerial team matters. True, in a democracy the composition of a ministry cannot be entirely shaped by competence. The leader of the team, the prime minister in this instance, must give adequate thought to other considerations such as regional, social, gender, communal, caste and linguistic representation. A prime minister who can meet such diverse aspirations while selecting his team and, at the same time, is able to pick capable, competent and honest members of his party for ministerial positions, is blessed. Rarely are prime ministers so blessed. Compromises have to be made. Voters in a democracy understand that. However, there are limits to voter patience. A criminal must never be a minister. A patently incompetent politician must be sacked. If the latter is not always possible, at least the more important ministries must not be allocated to such persons. Good governance matters. Even though Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is making a habit of changing his team every few months, this may well be the last opportunity for him to put in place a more competent team that can take his government to victory in the next elections. If this is at all the objective of such a reshuffle then Vajpayee’s priority must be to reward honest, competent and hard-working members of his team, punish the laggards and, more importantly, place the most important economic ministries in the best hands available. While he may believe that he can try and win the next election on a purely foreign policy platform, deriving comfort from the fact that Kargil won him re-election in 1999, the next election could well be fought on the record of his government’s economic performance even if some in his party believe terrorism and anti-Pakistan rhetoric alone can deliver the votes. The record of the government on the economic reform front is not particularly bright and Vajpayee can retrieve political ground even at this stage by placing key infrastructure and economic policy ministries in competent hands. There is widespread perception that economic reform and performance no longer attract this government’s attention. This perception must change if voters are to be convinced that they must vote this coalition back to power.
