Modi's saffron cabinet

The writing was large on the wall. For the past couple of years political observers and the Indian media have been predicting that Congress will go under at the 16th Lok Sabha elections.
President Pranob Mukherjee conducted the oath to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 44 other ministers on May 26. Senior BJP leaders described the event as “celebrating India's democracy.”
All the key ministries have gone to BJP stalwarts. BJP President Rajnath Singh is the home minister. Sushma Swaraj has been given the external affairs ministry. Arun Jaitley, who lost the election in Amritsar, is leader of BJP in the Rajya Sabha and finance minister, with additional charge of the defense ministry. All three are very close to Modi and are known to be hardliners.
Surprisingly, senior BJP leaders -- L.K. Advani, Arun Shourie, Amit Shah, Murli Manohar Joshi and several others -- did not find a cabinet berth. Will they be accommodated when the cabinet is expanded in the coming weeks?
Out of seven women ministers, six got cabinet posts. Grandniece of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Najma Heptullah (73), who was originally in Congress but joined BJP in 2004, is the lone Muslim minister and is in charge of minorities. Najma is a member of the Rajya Sabha. The other notable inclusion was Maneka Gandhi, widow of Sanjay Gandhi. She is minister for women and child development. Somehow a Nehru dynasty scion is always there.
Among the 44 ministers in the cabinet there are only 5 from the 18 parties that form the NDA. BJP is the only all-India party in NDA -- the others are state-level parties. The Shiv Sena (18 seats) and Telegu Desam Party (16 seats) are desperately trying to increase their representation in the cabinet. Modi has to consider regional representation in his cabinet when the cabinet is expanded. BJP has more seats than the threshold of 272 in the Lok Sabha. Since he will not be under any threat of “no confidence motion,” will he overlook the demands of the regional parties?
What is intriguing is the appointment of retired army chief General V.K. Singh as minister of state (independent charge) for North-East India. This is the first time a retired army chief has become a minister in India. What is even more puzzling is that General Singh is not under either the ministry of home or the ministry of defense.
The seven states of North-East India are surrounded by China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Will the general deal with the insurgency and the so-called “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh (a home ministry subject) or with the Chinese incursion in Arunachal Pradesh (a defense ministry subject)? There were reports in the Indian media that Modi was in favour of opening a separate division under the ministry of home to deal with the so-called “illegal immigrants” from neighbouring countries. One wonders whether V.K. Singh is in a camouflaged position under the ministry of external affairs. It will be worth noting his mandate.
Interestingly, blogs and twitter have already started criticising Modi's choice of ministers. Apparently, some of the old guard of Vajpayee government, who are now in the Modi team, have murky pasts.
What was smart of Modi was his decision to invite the Saarc leaders to attend his swearing-in ceremony. This is the first time that foreign leaders attended the swearing-in ceremony of a prime minister of India.
All Saarc heads of government attended, except Bangladesh. As Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was in Japan, Bangladesh was represented by Speaker of Jatiyo Sangsad Shirin Sharmeen Chowdhury. All the leaders had bilateral talks with Modi on May 27. Obviously, these meetings were not expected to take up substantive bilateral issues. In a way, through these bilateral meetings, Modi was probably defining his foreign policy priorities for South Asia. During the election campaign, Modi did not speak much about his ideas on Indian foreign policy. Hopefully, he will help revitalise morbid Saarc.
Most surprisingly, some Indian media went for unusual coverage of Nawaz Sharif.  It almost appeared like paranoia. There was practically no coverage of the other Saarc leaders. Nawaz and Modi both have clear mandate of the people to engage in constructive endeavours. One wishes the same was true for Bangladesh. Bonhomie between the two leaders is needed for stable relations between the two nuclear states of South Asia.
The unprecedented election campaign divided India sharply between the secularists and the Hindutva activists. Never before has India seen such polarisation. People have voted for BJP with a lot of expectations -- particularly the young generation, who have lot of aspirations.
Turning around the sagging Indian economy and creating jobs for the young generation will be Modi's first challenge. He will get support from Indian corporate houses that had actually helped him get elected. Getting rid of corruption will be second. The third challenge will be to restrain the Sangh Parivar from going overboard trying to build “Ram Mandir” on Babri mosque site in Ayodha. If the Sangh Parivar goes for another “Long March” India's already dented credential of as a secular society will fade away. Modi's fourth task will be to resolve bilateral issues with Saarc member countries.
Now that the government is well-settled, “Modi mania” should cool off and let the prime minister run the show. The first 100 days will determine which direction Modi's saffron cabinet takes.

The writer is former Ambassador and Secretary.