The Hindu Business Line : Are there also portfolios without a minister?

QUITE ironically, it is only when somebody becomes jobless that everybody else gets preoccupied. Thus, predictably, the question on most minds is, "What does a Minister without portfolio do?"

The short answer is that he goes about business as usual. But if you were too curious about this paradoxical phenomenon, more posers would pop up thick and fast, as in my inbox right now. Some help, therefore, for the flummoxed.

Shall we say MWP?

You must be the minister for abbreviations, I guess. No harm with the shorthand, though www.acronymfinder.com doesn't list `minister without portfolio' as one of the explanations. Among what are mentioned for MWP are: Maximum Working Pressure, Medieval Warm Period, Meteorologist Weather Processor, Milky Way Productions, Mission Work Plan, Mixed Waste Paper, Molecular Weight Profile, Monthly Work Plan and so on.

Who are we talking about?

Either you are natty or plain nutty. We are talking about a `Minister without Portfolio' who is defined by Wikipedia as "a government minister with no specific responsibilities."

Something unique?

Not at all. Have you forgotten KCR and Mamata? Canada has been having the MWPs for decades, though "in recent times the title has fallen out of favour, and the last minister without portfolio, Gilles Lamontagne, was promoted to postmaster general in 1978," as one learns from http://en.wikipedia.org. Irish for the phrase is `Aire gan ceannas Roinne,' and the Wiki site shows a long list of people who held the MWP position in the UK, starting from the Duke of Portland (1805-1806).

No work, no pay?

No, no! I mean, yes. "The minister is entitled to a furnished, official bungalow; he can make unlimited telephone calls; he has an official car; he can employ private assistants on Government pay; he can fly business class, for free, across the country. And, he gets his monthly salary of Rs 38,000 per month," as George Iype writes on http://us.rediff.com/news. "The annual salary of every minister with portfolio is 42.3 per cent of the annual salary of a member of the Assembly," informs www.e-laws.gov.on.ca about the Canadian law. For MWP, it is less than half, at only 19.2 per cent.

Sine qua non, shall we say?

Unfortunately, yes. MWP may be something absolutely indispensable, given the political compulsions, despite having an economist at the helm. `Sinecure,' is the word for "an office which requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service," as The Free Encyclopedia explains. "A potent tool for governments or monarchs to distribute patronage, while recipients are able to store up titles and easy salaries," it adds.

Can we identify them?

Michael Quinion writes on www.worldwidewords.org about an MWP who had `minister without portfolio' written on his portfolio (meaning, briefcase)! Exalted personages though they may be, MWPs have on occasion been seen as "somehow lightweight, lacking in that deep engagement in matters of State expected of those with a `proper' brief," he comments, about the UK context. In Malaysia, ministers with and without portfolio seem to have separate flags, as www.crwflags.com displays.

Are there also portfolios without a minister?

The `List of Council of Ministers (as on 07.11.2005)' on http://cabsec.nic.in/coumin.htm states against Dr Manmohan Singh, "Prime Minister and also in-charge of the Ministries/ Departments not specifically allocated to the charge of any Minister." Last of the 11 lines, which include Space and Coal, is the Ministry of External Affairs. So, that's where the buck stops.

SayCheek@TheHindu.co.in

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