Traditionally,the last few months of any government are dedicated to the political priorities of the ruling party. At least that has been the conventional wisdom and by that logic,the two reshuffles in the party as well as the Cabinet are being largely projected as a repatriation of talent from the government to the Congress.
But the mere resignation of two ministers Ajay Maken and C P Joshi is hardly a significant loss to the Cabinet. Some may even argue that it presented an opportunity to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to deliver a strong message to industry by appointing effective replacements. Instead,the opposite happened and that,in many ways,has been the disappointment of this extended weekend exercise.
The idea that the ruling party can use the Cabinet as some sort of a sinecure for those who are not needed within the organisation,or as a symbolic message of recognition to a particular community for politically expedient purposes,bares the approach that the UPA is no longer betting on results from governance.
Much as anyone may regard the likes of Sis Ram Ola,Mallikarjun Kharge and Oscar Fernandes,their appointments convey the impression that UPA-2 has folded up its office before time. But whats even more disturbing is the underlying assessment that governance issues can take the back seat from here on.
If at all,governance specifically economic governance is the one area where the UPA needs to desperately show results even until its dying moments. A concerted push in all economic and infrastructure sectors to accelerate growth has to be the priority and that is what seemed to be the purpose behind pushing through a forward looking Railway budget or even setting up a Cabinet Committee on Investment to push stalled infrastructure projects.
The idea was to achieve a perception turnaround and thats why installing Kharge in Rail Bhawan and Fernandes in Transport Bhawan does just the opposite. It points to serious contradictions within the ruling establishment over what should gain priority.
While all that is for the Congress to bother,the saddest fallout of this exercise is the singular message that the government will be less and less functional in a year so vital for the economy as Indias major competitors are busy scripting their comeback on the global stage.
Pranab is Editor,Express News Service
pranab.samanta@expressindia.com
