Rank honesty

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers, said Plato. We disagree. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes about selecting his new cabinet,this newspaper provides him with a Ministermeter,consolidated rankings of the ministers in his previous government. Many of the ministers rated are the usual suspects; they will surely find a seat in the new cabinet. The Ministermeter also lists the key reforms and deliverables within each ministry,a ready reckoner for neophytes as they settle into their new ministries.

The ministers who scored high were those who were able to deliver key reforms. As minister of finance,P. Chidambaram held his own in the face of intense Left pressure,delivering an increased taxpayer base as well as a decent VAT regime. Pranab Mukherjee did not allow three ministries and 50-plus government committees to sap his energy as the UPAs trouble-shooter-in-chief; he performed deftly,whether on the nuclear deal,or on Sri Lanka. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh,not a usual suspect,piloted the NREGA with a mastery of detail that put more seasoned ministers to shame. For their energies,we graded these ministers high. On the other end of the spectrum were the ministry wreckers,the Arjun Singhs and H.R. Bharadwajs,who,when faced with a chance-of-a-life-time reform of educational and legal institutions,instead chose the pettiness of self-serving politics. For them is reserved the ignominy of negative grades. Then there were the middling performers,the fours and sixes. The compulsions of politics took their toll on the Lalu Prasads and the Sharad Pawars,who,distracted by the allure of high electoral rankings,chose not to figure high in ours. Their occasional sparks of success were overshadowed by missed chances.

Our rankings factored in the coalition compulsions the previous cabinet worked under. But blessed with a decisive mandate and largely free from rent-seekers,Manmohan Singh has far more leeway in choosing his next cabinet than he did his last. He has the luxury of allocating portfolios not on the weight of electoral numbers,but on the weight of past performance. But he has something more,the responsibility of tracking his ministers and making clear to them the simple point: performance matters. Those who dont shape up,must be hastily shipped out. And not allowed to commandeer key portfolios for five long years without having anything to show for it.