Minister missing

If these were the number of classes attended in a college course,she would have had to repeat the year. But such are the perks of politics,that Railway Minister Mamata Banerjees attendance record for Union cabinet meetings she has not attended seven of the 12 meetings held since the UPA regained power will not lose her any sleep.

It should. Banerjees nonchalance about her cabinet responsibilities speaks of her obvious priority to win the 2011 West Bengal elections even at the cost of her ministerial work. This was clear,quite literally,from the early days of this government,when Banerjee spent 20 of its first 31 days in Bengal. This was also clear from her vociferous opposition to the proposed changes to the Land Acquisition Act voiced in one of the few cabinet meetings that she did,in fact,attend. The proposed changes are more sensitive to the rights of land-holding farmers than the law,as it currently stands,is. But such is Banerjees fear of squandering her electoral chances in Bengal that acquisition in any form is a no-go. Her hard-line which she followed by not attending the next three cabinet meetings resulted in the new bill being moved to cold storage precisely at a time when an updated law is required most. And reports suggest that in the latest,September 10,cabinet meeting that Banerjee skipped,on the agenda was her own ministrys proposal seeking a Japanese loan for one of its flagship projects. This is in addition to several key appointments in the railway ministry that are yet to be made.

Banerjee is hardly the only Central minister to be preoccupied with her own state. New Delhi has a rich culture of ministers using their national pedestal for narrow political ends. It was hoped that with the new UPA government less beholden to regional allies than the previous Centre was,rent-seeking and hostage-holding would be diminished. But her opposition to the land reform law,and her evident non-interest in her ministerial portfolio,flies in the face of any such hope.