Rethink the reflex

1998-99,the DMK has been firmly ensconced in Delhi for 15 years now. The party has refined a single manoeuvre to win the most obviously lucrative new economy ministries,from highways to telecommunications and earlier,environment,and use its extractive politics in Delhi to throw money at Tamil Nadu. This purely instrumental logic might make sense for the DMK,but it has had draining national consequences. This time,the Congress must,once and for all,bust the logic that certain ministries are automatically handed over to helpful coalition partners who often switch sides and cling to these sectors. This does not apply to the DMKs practices alone Mamata Banerjees assumption that the railway ministry is the Trinamools to take,is also problematic. The railways are a classic example of this extended patronage for too long,it has encouraged the sense that the incumbent ministers state would be the obvious focus of the ministrys favour. Similarly,the mines ministry too has often been seen to be a fiefdom. Allowing certain ministries to be under a single partys dominion only perpetuates bad habits,it encourages the sector itself to settle into rigid,often damaging patterns as in the highways ministry. Though there is a certain logic in having regional parties manage areas they have special expertise in,ministries often need the bracing oversight of a new dispensation.

More than anything,the practice of coalition allies asserting their claim to certain ministries undermines the principles of parliamentary democracy,where it is the prime ministers prerogative to pick his team and the right person for a particular assignment.