When a government does well, then no one questions how the cabinet works. But when failures arise, one blames a weak cabinet, as the cause of downslide of a government. The recent rail accident at Balasore, Odisha brought out many questions whether the Rail minister Ashwini Vaishnav failed in his duty. That debate is still going on. The failure of a Minister also injures the prime Minister. Weak ministers damage the government.
The cabinet system of government originated in England. Even the prime minister is only called “The First among Equals”. That means any decision of government must be a joint decision. When the prime Minister wants to dissolve his government and go for elections, he must call a cabinet meeting and take a decision and then submit it to the Rashtrapathi. The Prime Minister cannot singly dissolve the government.
The present Modi cabinet has a dynamic prime minister. There is no doubt that there are many able Ministers. No one doubts the abilities of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Foreign minister JaiShanker , Health Minister Masukh Mandavayya and minister Kirren Rijuju of Arunachal Pradesh.
But there is an iron law in life. The Chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If there is a weak minister, then he will bring the government down. Though there are some strong and efficient Ministers, the weak ones are slowing down the government.
Asymmetry in cabinet :
1. There seem to be too many Rajya Sabha MPs who are Ministers. Home, Fiancée, External Affairs, Urban Development, Education, Commerce, Railways, Telecom and Information Technology, Petroleum It have Rajya Sabha members as Ministers. This means that they usually are not from hard core politics and have little touch with issues at the ground level.
2. There are also too few Ministers from South India. But none of them is a heavy weight. This effects the image of the BJP and also makes the government look un-representative.
3. Besides prime minister Narendra Modi, there are only 3 chief Ministers in the cabinet. Rajnath Singh, Arjun Munda and Sorbonda Sonowal of Assam are the ex-chief Ministers. At one time, in P.V. Narasimha Rao and Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinets, there were 14 Ex-Chief ministers. A Chief Minister gets great experience and common sense to the government.
4. There are no intellectuals in the cabinet. Many governments like Nehru, Indira Gandhi and even Deve Gowda, included intellectuals to bring new ideas and prestige to government.
5. Some IAS/IFS officers have been given important Ministries. Dr. Jai Shanker and Hardeep Puri of Foreign service are there. Jai Shanker is doing great. But Hardeep Puri has 2 important Ministries. Similarly, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav is a former IAS officer. Not only railways, Vasihnav has 2 other key Ministries of Telecom and Information Technology. Questions are raised on why so many Ministries to 2 ex-IAS officers.
Certain ministries reduced in public contact
a. The railway minister used to be a high-profile politician like George Fernandez or Bihar Chief ministers Nitish Kumar and Laloo Prasad Yadav or Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Now, even the railway budget has been merged with the general budget. This has reduced public participation in the railways.
b. Telecommunications and Information Technology are important Ministries. Yet, both these Ministries are with railway Minister Vaishnav.
c. The Environment ministry also had high profile Ministers. There was Maneka Gandhi and others committed to Environment. Now, Environment ministry is less visible.
d. When Deve Gowda formed his government in 1996, people were surprised that he selected 4 noted intellectuals as ministers. Dr. Raja Ramanna, Dr. M.G.K. Menon, Dr.Y.K. Alagh were famous scientists. Nehru and Indira Gandhi had such intellectuals in their cabinet. Such Ministers add prestige for the government.
Why a cabinet of top political leaders is useful?
a. When you have former Chief Ministers or top political leaders in your cabinet, they will give then Prime Minister sound advice based on their stature and experience. They will advise against inflation or other policies. When you have only a few city-based Ministers, then they stick to their jobs and don’t dare open their mouths.
b. A sound political leader will make his opinion known in the Cabinet and won’t be afraid. When NoteBandi was suddenly announced on November 8, 2016 by Prime Minister Modi, even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did not know about it. No one opposed NoteBandi and there was economic chaos after that.
c. The British cabinet system works to give diverse opinions without fear of the Prime Minister. The prime Minister is not a supreme leader. The prime Minister is only “The First among equals”. But presently, the Indian cabinet system does not work like that. Perhaps after, Nehru, all Indian cabinets talk very cautiously in cabinet meetings, leading to governmental failures.
d. When there is regional imbalance in the cabinet, then some large areas are un-represented. This damages the government and the party. For example, most highways and new rail lines and infra-structure is being built in some states. Those states without senior ministers don’t get their quota.
Change needed in present cabinet
1. First of all, Modi should increase representation to southern states. They are poorly represented.
2. Modi should make more Lok Sabha MPs Ministers. Modi should induct tall political leaders into the cabinet.
3. Modi should also follow what Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Deve Gowda did and induct intellectuals into the cabinet. Sadly, there are no such persons in the cabinet. Though Software contributes 30% of Indian exports and employs millions, there is no noted person from that sector, as a Minister. Surely, this is a very big gap in the cabinet.
4. There are too many ministries held by some ministers. The railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has 3 most impotent Ministries with him. Similarly, Hardeep Puri has 2 portfolios and ministries are being neglected. It is humanly not possible to do justice to 3 Ministries in a giant country like India.
5. There are a great number of capable people in India. Many of them run the biggest corporations in the world. Yet, we find that no world class expert is in the cabinet. P.V. Narasimha Rao brought an outsider Dr. Manmohan Singh into the cabinet and Manmohan Singh made great contributions to India. . Modi should search for such people.
Ina large country like India, it is not enough that the prime minister ahs great caliber. It requires a whole team and maybe Modi should improve his team of ministers.
Many chief Ministers also function with weak cabinets. This leads to poor governance and they pay the price by getting thrown out of office. Centralizing power and trying to run a government with weak ministers leads to disaster for the country.
The time is right for Narendra Modi to remove the asymmetries In his cabinet. Otherwise, there will be many shocks and failures and no one will be blamed, except the prime minister.