Politics gets more cynical
THOSE who expected Prime Minister Modi to fulfil his promise of cleaning up Indian politics of money-power and crime, discarding caste-and-community calculations, and placing merit above loyalty, would be sorely disappointed at his cabinet reshuffle, adding 21 ministers.
The composition of the council of ministers reflects great paucity of talent in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and doesn't augur well for governance.
Ninety-two percent of its members are crorepatis, with average assets of Rs. 14 crores, or double those of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ministers. Almost one-third of them have criminal charges against them; 17% have serious charges, including rape, attempt to murder, and rioting.
Eight new ministers also face criminal charges. The junior minister of education (of all portfolios!), Ramshankar Katheria, is indicted in 21 cases, including attempt to murder, provoking communal disharmony and forgery. Hansraj Ahir has 11 cases, including assault and criminal intimidation. Giriraj Singh is connected with the Ranvir Sena, Bihar's Bhumihar militia responsible for several Dalit massacres.
The cruellest irony is the media-planted story that Ahir was rewarded for “whistle-blowing” in the coal scam -- although he was acting for and fed information by one of Maharashtra's most predatory business groups, with interests in coal. He's close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and represents the district to which RSS chief Bhagwat belongs.
Like all unimaginative reshuffles, the cabinet accommodates certain hitherto-excluded caste and regional interests -- from Himachal, Andhra, Telangana, etc. Even so, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, which defied the Modi wave, remain under-represented. Greater Jat representation is meant to assuage community sentiment in Haryana, where a non-Jat has been made chief minister.
Even more significant is the caste-based induction of ministers from Bihar, where elections are due next year: Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Thakur), Giriraj Singh (Bhumihar) and Ram Kirpal Yadav. The BJP faces a formidable alliance in Bihar between the Janata Dal (United), Laloo's Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress. It's preparing the ground by fomenting 170 communal incidents since June 2013.
More visible than these calculations is the RSS stamp in the choice of Manohar Parrikar, and five more RSS loyalists. Much has been made of the administrative competence of Parrikar (defence) and Suresh Prabhu (railways).
Parrikar's none-too-distinguished experience is limited to tiny Goa. But he's a Modi loyalist. Besides, Goa is where Modi got a reprieve from being sacked after the 2002 Gujarat carnage, and where he was anointed the party's prime ministerial candidate.
Parrikar never managed to break the nexus between Goa's politics and the iron-ore mafia. He temporarily shut down iron-ore mining, plunging the economy into a grave crisis. The closure became prolonged, but he lost numerous opportunities to turn the economy around. Why he's considered fit to handle the defence portfolio remains a mystery.
Former environment minister Prabhu cleared numerous ecologically unsound projects. But he cultivated Modi and was named his sherpa for the G-20 summit.
Even more questionable is J.P. Nadda's appointment as health minister after he engineered the transfer of a Central Vigilance Officer who unearthed scams.
Y.S. Chowdary's induction further discredits the government. He defaulted on a Rs. 317-crore loan to a public-sector bank. Similarly, Giriraj Singh reported a theft of Rs. 50,000 from his Patna home, but the police recovered Rs. 1.25 crores!
The new cabinet inspires no hope. Modi's ultra-authoritarian style is likely to prevent even the more competent ministers from working with functional autonomy. Modi has been meeting secretaries directly and disrupting the normal chain of command.
All decisions, including middle-level official appointments, are concentrated in the Prime Minister's Office. The diktat that no personal staff serving under UPA ministers can be employed is polarising the bureaucracy.
In Maharashtra, India's second largest state, the BJP won a confidence motion in a controversial voice-vote despite lacking a majority. It could have won a proper division-based vote with the Nationalist Congress's support, but didn't want to be seen associating with that highly tainted party, with which it colludes clandestinely.
The Shiv Sena is in a bind after botching up seat-sharing talks with the BJP. It's hard to say how the Sena-BJP standoff will end. But it's clear that the BJP is playing a devious game under RSS-loyalist Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, whose ascent represents retrogression. He's the first Brahmin to head Maharashtra after the Sena's Manohar Joshi, “remote-controlled” by Bal Thackeray.
Fadnavis will find it extremely difficult to deal with Maharashtra's countless scams, ranging from irrigation to highways, and housing to sugar cooperatives. His suave style and “clean” reputation notwithstanding, he's implicated in numerous ways with Nagpur's Sancheti group.
He used the multi-crore irrigation scam to the hilt against the Congress-NCP government, but didn't mention the Sancheti link in his deposition before the committee that investigated it. He's likely to face questions on this and the Adarsh scam, in which the Sanchetis are named.
Fadnavis has vociferously demanded a separate state of Vidarbha for years, which is why Vidarbha's votaries backed him strongly. But Modi opposes this. Sooner or later, this contradiction could catch up with the BJP. Its natural instinct will be to become yet more brazenly cynical.
The writer is an eminent Indian columnist.
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