Shuffling the deck

IT SEEMS FAIRLY evident that the sweeping Ministerial changes are intended to signal a reassertion of Prime Ministerial authority, severely dented as it has been in recent times. The reshuffle, which has lent the overall impression that the BJP has benefited at the cost of its allies, has, not surprisingly, led to a fair degree of resentment within certain constituents of the NDA Government. The shifting out of Mr. Sharad Yadav and Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan from Civil Aviation and Communications into arguably less glamourous Ministries is perceived as a direct result of their less-than-enthusiastic support for the process of economic reform. It is well known that Mr. Yadav's not-so-helpful attitude towards the disinvestment of Air India and Mr. Paswan's aggressive brand of populism had posed their share of problems for the pro-reformers within the Vajpayee Government. The elevation of the Disinvestment Minister, Mr. Arun Shourie, to Cabinet rank, the handing over of the Communications portfolio (in these times of technological convergence) to the Information Technology Minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, the induction of a few youthful faces and the sacking of some particularly ineffective or non-performing Ministers of State have strengthened the impression that one of the principal messages the latest reshuffle sought to convey was that of commitment to performance and economic reform.

A reshuffle of this magnitude of course is bound to contain multiple signals or messages. The one that emanated from the shifting of Mr. Jagmohan - whose tough and uncompromising approach towards illegal encroachments and unauthorised constructions as Minister for Urban Development had upset vested political and commercial interests - is a far from happy one and raises questions about the influence of the powerful construction lobby on the Government. Moved against his will to the Tourism Ministry, the shuffling of Mr. Jagmohan leaves a question mark on the fate of several projects he had initiated as Minister. Loyalty or allegiance to the Prime Minister seems to have been a underlying consideration in the reshuffle, most strongly illustrated by the appointment of Mr. Vijay Goel - who has been chosen over a clutch of BJP heavyweights from Delhi - as Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office. Although Mr. Goel has been formally vested with Planning, the exact nature of his role, which could possibly be much larger and more extensive, will become clear only in the days ahead.

In some ways, the reshuffle was in the nature of a corrective. For instance, the elevation of Mr. Syed Shahnawaz Hussain to Cabinet rank may address the `abnormality' of a Cabinet with no representative from the country's largest and very sizeable minority but, in the context of the BJP's larger political philosophy, such a gesture is little more than tokenism. Mr. Vajpayee has refrained from accommodating representatives of the Trinamool Congress and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), which recently re-joined the NDA after brief and failed attempts to find their political fortunes elsewhere. In doing so, the Prime Minister may have signalled that re-admittance does not necessarily mean full and immediate rehabilitation. However, the same firmness in resisting pressure from his allies was lacking vis-a-vis the former Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes. The Defence Ministry continues to be under the additional charge of the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, resulting in an unusual and arguably also far-from-ideal situation in which the burden of two heavyweight Ministries is borne by one person. In keeping the status quo going, Mr. Vajpayee may have been reluctant to upset Mr. Fernandes, who hopes to tide over his Tehelka-related difficulties soon and wants to maintain the impression that he is the Defence Minister in-waiting.

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Section  : Opinion
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