Going for what is expected to be his last major cabinetreshuffle before the general elections, Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh fixedsome nuts and bolts and got a new bottle for the old wine.
What he did not do was backing up the alleged re-launch ofthe reform agenda with a statement of intent to do some work before facing theelectorate again.
The mega revamp of the council of ministers saw 17 newfaces, many of them young “ as was expected, and many key ministries changinghands.
Though there were rumours, Congress general secretary RahulGandhi did not join the government, preferring a larger role in the party. Hishand, however, was seen behind the promotion to several young ministers andinduction of some more.
The top gainer of the major shake-up of the government onSunday was surprisingly Salman Khurshid, moving from the law ministry to theforeign office, despite corruption allegations against the trust run by hisfamily.
The other equally controversial move was taking S JaipalReddy out of the oil and natural gas ministry and putting M Veerappa Moily inhis place. The opposition saw corporate interests behind the change. JaipalReddy got science and technology, but reports suggested he was sulking.
The rejig comes just ahead of two crucial assembly electionsin Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, but there was no change in the representationof the two states.
“It is a combination of youth and experience,” ManmohanSingh said after the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan where President, PranabMukherjee administered the oath of office to the new incumbents.
“The road ahead is full of challenges,” he added.
Some of those challenges are coming from within the councilitself. Several ministers are sulking. Take Shashi Tharoor, for example, wholeft for Thiruvananthapuram to receive the President there and was to assumecharge of his new office only on November 2. According to sources close to him,he was disappointed that he still was only a junior minister and would have towork under Pallam Raju.
D Purandeswari too is disappointed, because apparently thePrime Minister had promised her independent charge of commerce but she got onlythe MoS status.
Jairam Ramesh, whomade headlines thrice in a month with his remarks on toilets, was unhappy thatsanitation and drinking water were taken out of the purview of his ministry ofrural development. An upset Ramesh cancelled his Kerala visit where he was toinaugurate a seminar on drinking water.
The opposition too was critical of the exercise. TheBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday taunted the prime minister for rewardingthe ‘tainted’ ministers with promotions and dubbed the rejig as the last failedattempt to keep the sinking ship afloat.
Party spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters thatthe UPA allies did not seek any berth as they knew that there was no use comingon the sinking board and commit political suicide. He added that the way theCongress treated its allies was demonstrated in the fact that the onlynon-Congress member inducted on Sunday was senior NCP leader Tariq Anwar, whogot only a junior minister's job.
He said the reshuffle has been disappointing as it beliedthe people's expectations to clean up the ministry of the corrupt. He said theBJP never had any expectations from the PM as he has become a master of thecover-up of all kinds of corruptions.
