The Hindu Business Line : Change of guard

It is a measure of the post-Mumbai attack panic in the government that, at long last, the Prime Minister has been able to persuade Ms Sonia Gandhi to allow the Home Minister, Mr Shivraj Patil, to resign. He should have gone at least three years ago, and indeed some would even ask whether he should have been appointed at all to such an important job. Unlike several of his colleagues in the Cabinet, he managed to get very little right. On terrorism, in particular, he failed spectacularly, preferring instead, when he was asked about it to hide behind two curtains. One was that he had done what he could by bolstering the policing ability of the States; the other was that law and order, being a State subject, there was not much more that he could do. Given how reasonable he can sound, most people — including, it would seem, the so-called party High Command — bought the argument. But the attack on Mumbai last week was too big a failure for it to let him continue.

His successor is none other than Mr P. Chidambaram who, until yesterday, was the Finance Minister. For those who may wonder why him, and not someone else, he used to be Minister of State for Internal Security in Rajiv Gandhi’s government. Even if his grasp of the issues has become a little rusty since then, he is at least a man to push things along. That, in itself, will be a major gain, for far too long has this government been content to appoint committees and hold meetings in the mistaken view that this constitutes purposive action. One must, therefore, hope that he will be able to push things along rather more quickly than his predecessor could. As any good minister knows, about 90 per cent of what is needed of him is the ability to listen to his officials. What needs to be done is well known. Money is not a consideration. All that is needed is the ability to cut through the government’s Byzantine processes to get action on the ground. He will also be tested in his ability to hold the usual Congress politics at bay, not least to blunt the BJP’s criticism that this government has been playing ducks and drakes with internal security because of its well-known positions on secularism. A test case might be what he is able to do in the Afzal Guru case.

The Prime Minister has assumed additional charge of the Finance Ministry. The word in knowledgeable circles for the last few weeks has been that much of action taken to combat the financial crisis during the last two months was initiated at his behest. In that sense, his assuming direct charge should not make all that much of a difference. But where it must make a difference is in the issue of business confidence. Otherwise, it will be not be a meaningful move. Given that he is generally granted the honour of being the father of economic reforms, he has a heavier-than-usual cross to bear now as he will have to live up to his reputation. The task before him, in the months that remain for the government, is clear: ensure a massive dose of public investment in infrastructure. And, like Mr Chidambaram in the Home Ministry, he will be judged on his success in scything through the myriad Gordian knots in government procedures.

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