Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expanded his team of Ministers to 66 on Sunday last. He has made the Council of Ministers geographically and socially more representative, which would go a long way to stabilise the internal problems of the BJP.
The expansion of the Ministry has, however, alienated the Shiv Sena. An ally of long years, the Shiv Sena felt slighted, as it was not even getting a Cabinet berth. The Telugu Desam Party has, however, found its representation good enough.The Prime Minister has definitely done his homework in deciding whom to induct and has attempted a delicate balance in the future interests of the BJP, has also acknowledged merit and the inevitable caste factor.
Concerns of Brahmins, Jats, Bhumihars and Rajputs have been addressed through the craft of Ministry-making. Bihar and UP, which go to the polls in 2015 and 2017, respectively, have received adequate focus and attention. Ram Kripal Yadav from Bihar represents the aspirations of the backward communities. Vijay Sampla started his career as a plumber. Ram Vilas Paswan cannot now claim to be a heavyweight in Bihar. Yet, another Dalit MP is Ram Shankar Katheriya (UP).
The tensions with the Shiv Sena boiled over when Suresh Prabhu was enrolled as a Member of the BJP in two minutes. This has sent its own signal to the Shiv Sena. The PM has undoubtedly sent out a message to the allies that they must fall in line to work on the BJP’s terms.
The BJP broke its long relationship with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and with Haryana Janhit Congress in Haryana and went to the polls on its own. The results in these States are bound to have added to the aspirations of the BJP to depend less on regional parties and establish itself as a real national party. Ordinarily, the BJP has been considered to be a junior partner to the Shiromani Akali Dal.
But there have been new signals there too. The newly appointed Minister Ram Shankar Katheriya (who is also the BJP’s newly appointed Punjab affairs in charge) has spoken of BJP going on its own in the Assembly polls of Punjab in 2017. He has cautiously qualified his statement by saying that this was with the hope that “a favourable scenario develops in the State”. The Telugu Desam Party will have the task ahead in bargaining with the Central Government to get adequate resources to build a new capital for Seeimandhra. Alongside, the BJP is bound to build its own party organisation in that State. Bandaru Dattatreya, the party chief of BJP in Telangana, has been appointed as an MoS with independent charge. UP and Bihar have got special attention for the obvious reason of strengthening BJP in those States for the future elections there. The BJP is definitely working towards evolving a pattern, where it can dispense with the allies.
In Jammu & Kashmir, the BJP has a new entrant in Ajatshatru Singh (hitherto in the National Conference), son of senior Congress leader Karan Singh. Kashmir goes to the polls later in the month. In the changed scenario, there is every likelihood that if the BJP performs reasonably well, it may have to adjust and persuade itself to form a Government with the Peoples Democratic Party. The next few weeks will reveal the final picture in J&K.
While political needs have definitely been taken into consideration in the expansion of the Ministry, the PM has not forgotten the requirements of talent hunting. A few illustrations will indicate the above. Jayant Sinha (son of Yashwant Sinha) is a product of IIT, Delhi and Harvard University, US and has worked in the Boston Offices of Management Consulting firm Mc Kinsey & Co and has been a partner of the California Omidyar Foundation.
Babul Supriyo, a popular Bollywood singer, has also been recognised. He had defeated Dola Sen, a trade union leader belonging to the Trinamool Congress. Rajyavardhan Rathore, a first-time lok Sabha member, is a shooting Olympian medalist. These names are only illustrative. If one analyses the background of each of the new entrants, one finds a clear nexus with the current needs of the party and of the Government.
While balancing out the social and geographical representative character of the Ministry, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura have gone unrepresented. This expansion of the Ministry was after about six months of the formation of the new Government.
One can reasonably predict that after a few further months, the PM will reevaluate the performance of the old guard and the new ones in the spheres of activities within the party and in the Government. The days ahead, therefore, would be crucial for those who were sworn in on Sunday. A duty is also cast on the alert citizens to evaluate the performance of the Ministry of 66 persons.
The citizens are also expected by the PM to convey their assessment regarding good governance. This is an onerous responsibility on the shoulders of the voters, and, for this, they have to formulate the modalities and the mechanism for evaluating the individuals on whom the PM has reposed so much of trust.
Months ahead are of greater concern in so far as the alert citizen-voter is concerned. There have to be new and effective methods of holding the mirror in front of the powers that be so that they do not perform less and we do not suffer more. And this concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)