Even as ministers are busy taking over their new assignments, the debate is heating up on the very utility of the reshuffle — limited merely to changing of portfolios.
Will Manmohan Singh’s re-jigged Cabinet be able to tide over the crisis resulting due to non-performance in some of the key ministries and the opposition onslaught on account of series of scams?
Even as ministers are busy taking over their new assignments, the debate is heating up on the very utility of the reshuffle — limited merely to changing of portfolios.
The re-jig focusing on ministries related to infrastructure development and those directly touching the common man, is being perceived in political circles as an admission of inefficiency and corruption in the system by prime minister Manmohan Singh.
BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said the reshuffle only reflected PM’s helplessness as he had no freedom to either act against some non-performing and corrupt ministers or induct new faces of his choice.
Senior Congress leader and information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni dismissed the allegation that the reshuffle was “cosmetic” in nature. “Ministries have been changed to look for new opportunities,” she observed.
Political analysts hailed petroleum ministry to urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy and divesting Sharad Pawar of the consumers affairs and food distribution portfolio — which are directly related to price rise. Given Reddy’s socialist background, he is supposed to maintain a critical balance between the interests of common man and the oil companies.
His predecessor Murli Deora was seen as catering to the interests of the latter. And Pawar had invited severe criticism for his handling of consumers affairs department alongwith agriculture.
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