Paswan, Sharad Yadav shifted

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 1. In a half-hearted reshuffle exercise, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, today inducted six new faces into his Council of Ministers while five colleagues were shown the door, and two Ministers of State were elevated to the Cabinet rank. The portfolios of several Ministers have also been changed.

Mr. Vajpayee's Cabinet is now 76 strong. The Prime Minister described today's exercise as an attempt to give the ``new generation'' a chance to prove itself. The reshuffle of portfolios is also seen as an attempt to kick-start the economic reforms process once again.

The President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, administered the oath of office to the new entrants - two Cabinet Ministers and four Ministers of State - as well as to the two who were elevated to the Cabinet rank, at a simple ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan this evening.

Among those who have been axed and whose resignations have been accepted by the President, include Mr. Sunderlal Patwa, and four Ministers of State - Mr. Debendra Pradhan, Mr. Chaoba Singh, Mr. Jaisinghrao Patil Gaikwad, and Mr. Sriram Chauhan.

Civil Aviation for Shahnawaz

The two new Cabinet Ministers are Mr. Karia Munda (Agro and Rural Industries) and Mr. Ved Prakash Goyal (Shipping); Mr. Arun Shourie gets promoted as Cabinet Minister but continues to remain in charge of the disinvestment portfolio. Syed Shahnawaz Hussain was promoted as Cabinet Minister and assigned the Civil Aviation portfolio.

Mr. Hussain, who is only 32 years old, is probably the youngest Cabinet Minister since Independence. More importantly, his elevation corrects one of the most poignant anomalies in the Vajpayee Government - the absence of a Muslim in the Cabinet.

Also, the Prime Minister has effected a change of portfolios with the intention of sending a message that those Ministers not in sympathy with the logic and politics of the economic reforms process, could not expect to preside over key economic ministries. Consequently, Mr. Sharad Yadav loses the Civil Aviation portfolio while Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan has to move out of the Sanchar Bhavan; both were reluctant reformers and both resisted the change till the last. Mr. Yadav now gets Labour while Mr. Paswan will preside over Coals and Mines.

Communication for Mahajan

In the bargain, the Communication portfolio goes to Mr. Pramod Mahajan who will continue to be in charge of Parliamentary Affairs; this, plus elevation of Mr. Shourie to Cabinet rank are being described as part of Mr. Vajpayee's effort to put competent ``managers'' in charge of key ministries.

Four new Ministers of State were administered the oath of office. These include, Mr. Rajiv Pratap Rudi (Commerce and Industry), Mr. Ravi Shanker Prasad (Coals and Mines), Mr. Vijay Goel (Planning and Prime Minister's Office), and Mr. Annasaheb M. L. Patil (Rural Development). A fifth BJP member, Mr. Ashok Pradhan, was also scheduled to take oath, but he could not return from Durban in time and was last heard to be stranded in Dubai at the time of the swearing-in.

Jagmohan moved to Tourism

Mr. Jagmohan, who as Minister for Urban Development, appears to have annoyed the powerful sections of the BJP by his demolition drive, has been shifted to Tourism, while Mr. Ananth Kumar takes over from him. Ms. Maneka Gandhi, therefore, goes to the Ministry of Culture, while Mr. Satynarayan Jatia loses Labour and gets the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Today's inductions were confined to the BJP MPs. The Prime Minister vaguely mentioned that he would be ``expanding'' for the NDA allies at a later date. In the process, he also chose not to take the most important political decision he could take: find a full-time Defence Minister.

PTI reports:

Ruling out the immediate re-entry of the Trinamool Congress and the PMK into his Ministry, Mr. Vajpayee said ``there is no new message for them. They have rejoined the NDA. Whenever the question of inclusion of NDA allies will arise, it will be considered then. There is no such proposal now.''

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