Cabinet reshuffle is just a tweaking exercise

Pundits feel frustrated by Wednesday’s cabinet reshuffle because they are not able to read the political signs — in the manner of tea leaves or coffee cups — emanating from prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and their equation. Apart from the induction of Beni Prasad Verma, Ashwini Kumar and K Venugopal, all from the Congress, there are no new faces.

There has been a significant reshuffle of portfolios, the most interesting being S Jaipal Reddy shifting to the petroleum ministry and Murli Deora shifting to corporate affairs. It would seem that market-friendly Deora has given way to socialist-minded Reddy. Here is a bit of irony. Deora replaced the unrepentant socialist Mani Shankar Aiyar in UPA-I in the petroleum ministry. But all this remains in the realm of sweet speculation. Aiyar, Deora and Reddy may have their political leanings but it is for the UPA and for Singh to decide the policy to be pursued.

It can be argued that cabinet reshuffle is not meant to send out political signals about which way the ideological wind is blowing and that it is just a reassigning of work. That is not convincing enough. The cabinet re-jig exercise is really meant to improve the performance of the government and it has to be seen whether that happens or not. On Wednesday, it was confined to the Congress party. The allies have been kept out, and the promise that there will be a major reshuffle after the budget session of Parliament is a hint that it is then that the UPA partners will be part of the change game.

Given the byzantine intra-party politics of the Congress, this could not have been an easy thing to do. What seems to have been achieved is a tweaking of sorts that has left the observers’ gallery dissatisfied and angry. The issue is not that there is not much to write about this reshuffle. Moving the talented Salman Khurshid from the ministry of corporate affairs to water resources, or former Maharashtra chief minister from heavy industries to rural development is an exercise in futility.

If Singh were to have his way, he would perhaps have Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and chairman of the Unique Identification Authority Nandan Nilekani in the cabinet to move things in the direction he wants to. But the prime minister is realistic enough to know that the cabinet in Parliamentary democracy, unlike in the private sector, merit is not the only consideration in selecting people.