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State of UPA Government : Cabinet reshuffle put off

	June 27, 2005

The long-awaited expansion and reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers appears to have been put off again by a few days. There were reports last week that the reshuffle may take place on Saturday, June 25, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were said to be still working on the entire package of the changes in the Union Cabinet, with which an organisational shake up in the Congress is tied up. Congress sources said that the Cabinet reshuffle’s linkage with the reorganisation in the AICC set up has made the process a little more complicated. Sources said, “It is a delicate balancing act, the changes in the Council of Ministers are linked to the overhaul of the AICC team.”

Keeping in view the aspirations and political imperatives to give representation to some states and social segments, the package is being jointly worked out by the Prime Minister and party leader Sonia Gandhi. While there are indications that some younger Congress MPs will get responsibilities in the party set up, the cabinet expansion is likely to take care of the issue of regional representation.

There are a few ministerial vacancies and some of the ministers have got more than one portfolio. Several new faces are expected to be accommodated in the ministerial team against these posts. The exercise, however, is hamstrung by the fact that the Congress leadership is incapable of touching any minister belonging to the other constituent parties. On the whole the reshuffle will be limited to the Congress part of the Cabinet.



PMO’s studied silence

Interestingly, the PMO and the Congress president’s office have been maintaining a studied silence on the speculation about the Cabinet reshuffle. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is expected to reconstitute her AICC team only after the Cabinet reshuffle. Her son Rahul Gandhi will be made a general secretary, Congress sources reiterated.

Party leaders like Ambika Soni and A.K. Antony are likely to be inducted in the Cabinet and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Harish Rawat and Anand Sharma are likely to be made junior ministers in the Union Ministry.

Names of Mumbai Congress chief Gurudas Kamat and former Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang also are doing rounds in political circles.

According to a non-Congress UPA leader, the exercise would not be a significant one and would be an “internal” affair of the Congress. This indicates that the portfolios of the Ministers belonging to the other UPA partners will not be touched. Indications are that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who has held a series of meetings with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, could go in for bifurcation of some portfolios currently held by a single Minister.

A Ministry probable is JMM chief Shibu Soren who has been in the political wilderness after the fall of his Government in Jharkhand in March. There are indications that I & B Minister Jaipal Reddy may be moved to another Ministry. Reddy has not been comfortable with his position and has apparently sought a change. Minister of State for Personnel Suresh Pachuri is among those tipped to replace him.

The strength of the Manmohan Singh Ministry at present is 65. It has 27 Cabinet Ministers, 10 Ministers of State with Independent rank and 28 Ministers of State. Dr. Singh can induct 16 more ministers as the size of the Government at the Centre cannot exceed 81. Dr. Singh is unlikely to fill all the berths and leave some cushion for any exigency.



Congress plenary session in September

The Congress has decided that its next plenary session to ratify the party president’s election will be held towards the end of September. The decision on the tentative timings of the AICC meeting was taken at a meeting of the party general secretaries with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on June 24. The dates and venue will be finalised by the Congress Working Committee which will meet after June 30 when the process of organisational elections will be completed. AICC leaders and Chief Ministers have been offering to host the plenary session and the race is expected to pick up now. While Andhra Pradesh has been pushing to host the meeting after the party’s phenomenal electoral victory in the state, a case is being made out for Uttar Pradesh on the grounds of its importance and the party’s poor presence there. No AICC plenary meeting has been held in Uttar Pradesh for over two decades.



Finance Minister accused of being anti-poor

The Manmohan Singh Government found itself in an embarrassing position on Thursday, June 23, when Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, labelled Finance Minister Chidambaram as anti-rural and anti-poor. The accusation came at a meeting convened by the Prime Minister to discuss mobilisation of funds for Bharat Nirman, the UPA Government’s ambitious rural infrastructure development business plan.

However, Prime Minister’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru said none of this had happened as far as he knew. There were no differences, he said. “There was a detailed discussion on funding and the involvement of panchayati raj institutions.”

Accounts of the meeting, however, say Raghuvansh Prasad Singh went to the extent of saying “Government might end up as a laughing stock.”

What reportedly angered him was that despite announcement of a business plan, with Rs. 1,74,000 crore to be invested over four years, nothing concrete was coming forth in the form of additional financial commitments.



Pawar spares the Government

The embarrassment would have been considerably more had Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar joined the attack - something that was reportedly expected. However, it did not happen. In the past, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had publicly accused Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia of being anti-rural and anti-poor, wondering how the issue of funds cropped up when it came to finding money for the poor.

Last week’s meeting, the second such, was supposed to give shape to the six-point Bharat Nirman which aims to change the face of rural India in six key areas - roads, housing, drinking water, irrigation, electricity and telephones.

Bharat Nirman, the centre-piece of the Union Government’s expenditure plan, claims to set high targets to be achieved by 2009. The goals are : to bring an additional 10 million hectares under assured irrigation, to connect all villages that have a population of 1,000 (or 500 in hilly areas) with a road, to construct 60 lakh additional houses for the poor, to provide drinking water to remaining 74,000 habitations that are uncovered to reach electricity to remaining 1,25,000 villages and offer connection to 2.3 crore households’ and to give phone connectivity to the remaining 66,822 villages.