Re-mulching the Cabinet

At last, on Sunday, the country got a full-time Raksha Mantri, though Ms Nirmala Sitharaman gets listed at Number 26 among the ministers, as befitting her stature as a political lightweight. This is a critical ministerial brief and it makes good optics to have a woman playing the Raksha Mantri. She would be expected to learn quickly to defer to the judgment and preferences of the PMO. She has the potential to be quick-study and has a reputation for diligence and hard work. Still, it is remains to be seen if she can bring the requisite gravitas to the deliberations of the all-important Cabinet Committee on Security. Her elevation to the South Bloc is perhaps the only bright spark in the Cabinet rejig.

The induction of four former bureaucrats into the Council of Ministers is a belated acknowledgement that the Modi Sarkar could do with a dose of administrative talent. Barring a handful — like Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan — most of the junior BJP ministers have proved to be administrative duds; the qualities that make a good politico or a good pracharak do not necessarily help them become a performing minister. Three of the four inducted former bureaucrats — RK Singh, Hardeep Puri, and Alphons Kannanthanam — have been given independent charge as ministers of state. That has the smell of an inspired move and should add to the government’s reputation. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s elevation to the full Cabinet rank has its own significance. On the other hand, continued presence of a serial failure like Uma Bharti suggests hard electoral calculations and unsavoury political compulsions outweighing the obligations of ministerial competence.

The reshuffle of the Council of Ministers has taken place in the context of some very unhappy news on the economic front. Chickens are coming home to roost. There are genuine fears that the Indian economy is in for a very bad turn before the promised achhe din could be experienced by the consumers and the citizens. The Cabinet re-mulch helps create a new narrative of new faces bringing with them expectation of new energy and new enthusiasm. This may be only a temporary respite.