The Indian media is abuzz with reports of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, Ms Sonia Gandhi, being engaged in close and constant consultations on the question of undertaking an “expansive” Cabinet reshuffle. They are said to be critically reviewing the performance of individual Ministers in order to be able to decide on the permutations and combinations which would necessarily involve entries and exits as well as changes of berths.

True to their long ingrained habit, political commentators have got busy working out their own configurations and would perhaps complete the Cabinet reshuffle to their satisfaction long before the Prime Minister does!

Most such media exercises are usually personality-centric, as indeed they have often been at the level of the Prime Minister himself who has been in office at the time.

That was why Cabinet reshuffles of the past had the look of being both amorphous and ad hoc, with neither a philosophy nor a purpose underlying it.

The Prime Minister, Dr Singh, would be doing a grave disservice to the nation and letting down the people if his approach to the impending reshuffle too were to seem like tinkering on the surface for fear of rocking the political boat. Dr Singh's memory needs to be refreshed with the many time-honoured postulates governing Prime Ministerial authority and obligation which had been accepted as axiomatic in Britain, regarded for a millennium as the mother of parliamentary democracies.

The first is that all power of the government over which he presides flows from him by virtue of his right to appoint and dismiss Ministers. Indeed, when the Prime Minister resigns on his own or on losing the confidence of the House of Commons (or the People, as adapted in India), the whole Cabinet falls with him, requiring it to be reconstituted by the successor-Prime Minister.

Night of the Long Knives

Relentless, remorseless, ruthless: These are the three r's of an effective Prime Minister's hold over his Cabinet. The most famous instance of its demonstration was by Harold Macmillan, in 1962, who, in a breath-taking operation, sacked seven Cabinet ministers, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Lord Chancellor. “The Night of the Long Knives” affected 52 other incumbent Ministers and 39 of the 101 Ministerial posts.

Indira Gandhi too was in the same league of no-nonsense Prime Ministers. Her abrupt sacking of Morarji Desai who, besides being the Deputy Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, even towered over her as a heavy-weight politician in his own right, once and for all established her unchallengeable supremacy, until she herself cut the ground from under her own feet.

Before Ms Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh take a view on the performance of individual Ministers as a prelude to the reshuffle, Dr Singh should do a self-appraisal of his own performance so far, and invite his Cabinet colleagues also to assess him in order to enable him to stand outside of his skin and come to a judgment whether he should start wielding the axe with himself first. If such a question is posed as part of a poll, I have no doubt that the overwhelming response will be in the affirmative.

Inalienable principles

Maybe, it is too much to expect such an act of dismissal of oneself in Indian conditions. In which case, Dr Singh should at least base his Cabinet reshuffle on some inalienable fundamental principles.

The first and foremost, the one which he can no longer evade, is insistence on the highest standards of probity and integrity of the persons included in the Cabinet.

The presence of even a single crook, on the excuse of compulsions of the coalition dharma will wipe out the effect of all the pretentious preaching against corruption, sonorous promises of action against the culprits, and claims of personal honesty of the Prime Minister.

Here, the Prime Minister must bank on his sixth sense and popular perception rather than falling back on the customary alibi of innocent until guilt is proved to the hilt in a court of law.

The second, which is again something not to be made a prey to coalition compulsions, is competence, made up of a national perspective, sound judgment, awareness of the intricacies of governance, grasp of issues, commanding credibility in Parliament and capacity to deliver the goods. Some allowance can be made for learning on the job, provided the person is of unimpeachable integrity.

Two blind spots

In reshuffling the Cabinet, the Prime Minister should go all out for building up the leadership talents among energetic youth and women, even if it means providing for their making mistakes at the initial stages.

He can do no better than acting on the suggestion of the Home Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, who has strongly pleaded for those over 60 years of age stepping back in favour of having younger leaders, in their late forties, as Ministers, including Cabinet Ministers. This may be an opportune time to test out the capabilities of Mr Rahul Gandhi.

Finally, no Prime Minister and no Cabinet, however honest, competent and energetic can achieve much unless they are efficiently serviced by the Cabinet Secretariat and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

These two have been blind spots of the administrative dispensation at the Centre and must take the blame for the various snafus, goof-ups and ugly surprises that the country has witnessed lately — the negligence in not taking advance action against scams, the CVC appointment, inclusion of wrong names in the most wanted terrorists lists handed to Pakistan, lack of coordination among Ministries — all leading to the Supreme Court assuming many of the functions of the Executive.

The PMO, in particular, needs to be thoroughly revamped if the Prime Minister is not to suffer a further loss of face.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW