It went on and on. And the show resembled some sort of a mass employment programme and in a sense it was true, for what better way to keep our restless politicians occupied than allowing them to languish in a position of power and pelf. As one familiar face after another walked up the familiar ramp to the familiar mike to read out the now very familiar oath that even toddlers know by heart like a rhyme, the familiar yearly chore wore on endlessly till the scoreboard touched about 70.
And, mercifully Vajpayee, as though taking a cue from Tendulkar, also declared, probably for want of enough portfolios to accommodate the balance of the NDA and also because, ministry making could not possibly stretch till the end of the five year term.
It was also a very egalitarian exercise that reflected the cultural, geographical, ethnic, political, religious, social …gosh! and such other diversities that our country is notorious for. And incidentally, secularism too was given a fair deal with showpieces from other communities too adorning the Cabinet. Of course, the PM would be hard pressed to recall and recite his colleagues list if he were subjected to a memory test, but then like that trendy two-wheeler, even in the case of the Cabinet it is just a matter of fill it, shut it and forget it.
The prudence and efficacy of such please-all populist Cabinets as against ministerial appointments based solely on talent and more importantly, necessity, is a matter worthy of debate. More ministers do not necessarily mean better governance; instead, given their proclivities, they are bound to be more of a burden, to the PM as well as to the country. With every MP wanting to become a minister and the leader of every group of MPs aspiring to become the PM, the malaise of unbridled ambition is a sure sign of these coalition times.
Even bosom allies turn tough customers when it comes to sharing the spoils of power and given the tenuous nature of the coalition relationships, the thin line that divides bargaining and blackmailing often gets breached. And the nation gets saddled with elephantine Cabinets, not to speak of the cost of maintaining such white Jumbos.
But then one can understand Vajpayee’s eagerness to ensure a minimal harmony in his government’s functioning particularly after the Thirteen- day and Thirteen-month fiascoes in the past. Also one doesn’t know from where the next rug-puller will spring up from and that explains the attempt to shut as many back doors as possible.
In any case, a Jumbo coalition warranted a Jumbo ministry, to satisfy the hungering partners of the NDA for whom power is the be all and end all of politics. Little wonder that almost one in four MPs has made it to one or the other Bhavan/Blocks in the capital. Sure, the balance three fourths, that includes quite a few heavy weights, would be seething at their exclusion, but then a comfortably placed Vajpayee can now afford to ignore such grumblings and get on with the task of governance, which has now become a luxury of sorts.
Really, it seems as if the entire country has come back from a long, long holiday, a forced one at that. It was a sabbatical that the country can ill-afford, but the three wise men at the EC thought otherwise and ensured that all of six months was consumed for the election and formation of a new government. One may be justified in questioning their wisdom or the lack of it in giving priority to their conveniences instead of the yearnings of an ailing economy.
In any case, their specious logic that they needed the time to ensure free and fair polls fell flat what with one getting to count corpses instead of the votes with unprecedented violence and poll malpractices being witnessed in some parts of the country, besides poor voter turnouts in several constituencies.
Fortunately, barring the three- or is two now?- musketeers of the EC, there appears to be an all pervading concern about the economy. As it should be, the country’s financial health is of top priority, for no country can hope to move forward on an empty stomach. Currently the economy is surviving more on hope than on any concrete fundamentals. With a good part of the year already becoming history, and the next Union Budget round the corner, an entire financial year has just gone down the drain with hardly any policy initiatives of note.
Not that the EC with its ridiculous rule book would have allowed them too. In these fast-paced times, a year is longer than a generation and this infructuous period of political uncertainty has certainly put our economic clock back. And combined with a costly war and costlier elections, the state of the exchequer is nothing to write home about.
All of the best laid plans of Sinha & Co have already gone awry and one does not have to wait for the marathon economic survey to tell us the bad news. Still, the balance five months is a long time as the past six months of inactivity has been, and one can expect the North Block mandarins to forthwith initiate steps on the score of legislations that are hanging fire for quite some time now.
Sinha has already made the right noises and he should waste no time in following them up with action, particularly with Parliament winter session affording him an early opportunity. He doesn’t have to wait for Come September!
Pilot Vajpayee and his Jumbo passengers face an extremely turbulent weather ahead. Though the PM has not minced words about his intentions, one only hopes the huge coalition does not become a drag on him and governance. This time he does not have the luxury of readymade excuses for non-performance that his earlier partners offered him so graciously and so often.
And so, one also expects that the PM will not hesitate to shed extra baggage that runs the risk of crash landing his government that is now comfortably air borne. Afterall, the able PM is also now a stable PM.
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