Modi's Cabinet expansion is a mixed bag, from motormouth ex-top cop Satyapal Singh to the First Lady of Defence, Nirmala Sitharaman
It is heartening to see that Modi and Shah had the smarts to promote Nirmala Sitharaman to Defence Minister. File pic/AFP
You might remember when, as Mumbai's police commissioner in 2013, Satyapal Singh said this: "Most suicides are committed by those who have studied in the English medium. I have never heard of or seen a Sanskrit-medium educated person committing suicide." Today, he is Union minister of state for education. Educated or not, one can predict his tenure will be marked by foot-in-mouth disease. Such is the dearth of talent in the ruling BJP that even with 340 Members of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to choose this ex-cop. Possibly Singh's preference for Sanskrit over English makes for an ideal candidate in the Sangh parivar. I'm inclined to think, however, that anyone can be an ideal candidate if they just mouth the usual lines about cultural nationalism, even if they don't personally believe it.
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Like the new tourism minister, KJ Alphonse, who just 11 years ago left government service to become an assemblyman in Kerala - aligned to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Is he ideal or does he just sound ideal? In the '90s, Alphonse was known in middle-class Delhi as the 'demolition man' (slum-dwellers called him something else). Still, he was bold as far as bureaucrats go, so when AB Vajpayee in 1998 made Ram Jethmalani his urban development minister, Jethmalani chose Alphonse as his Man Friday. I met Alphonse and instead of giving me a story, he turned the tables by asking me for ideas on improving housing in India. (Nearly 20 years later, I still have zero ideas.) In 2015, Alphonse heckled former spy chief AS Dulat and I, after a discussion of our book Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years at a Delhi literary festival. Was it correct for Dulat, he rhetorically asked, to have written a book? So, on the whole, it is uncertain whether Alphonse will make for a creative tourism minister, but he will no doubt be a fearless cheerleader for Modi's 'New India'.
The brightest former officials inducted into the Council of Ministers is Hardeep Singh Puri, who almost became foreign secretary under ex-PM Manmohan Singh but lost out to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's choice, Sujata Singh (daughter of family loyalist and former IB chief TV Rajeshwar). Puri joined the BJP hoping to become National Security Advisor (NSA) but lost out to Ajit Doval. He was not overjoyed. Ironically, both Doval and Puri were considered to be former deputy PM LK Advani's blue-eyed boys; as high commissioner in London, Puri aided Advani on a delicate family matter. That sums up Puri - always someone's blue-eyed boy, be it the late JN Dixit or Advani, or even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Though he's an independent minister, he might think himself worthy of meatier portfolios than urban affairs.
No matter how smart, long service conditions bureaucrats to be operators. They are hard-wired to implement someone else's ideas. Even former Home Secretary RK Singh, now with independent charge of the power ministry (a responsibility previously Piyush Goel's), is ultimately just a bureaucrat despite all the breathless talk of his exploits of having arrested Advani in 1990. That he is a minister even after lashing out at the party in 2014 - he even criticised External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj for her links to fugitive Lalit Modi - should be of no surprise. It simply means RK Singh was confident enough to do so, having held the confidence of someone powerful. And the only two people who matter in India are Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
There is a silver lining in this ministry expansion; it is heartening to see that Modi and Shah had the smarts to promote Nirmala Sitharaman to Defence Minister. This means that she joins the government's core group, the Cabinet Committee on Security. It comprises Modi, Jaitley, Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The only other possible entrant to this exclusive group could have been Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari but he isn't wanted there. He is his own man; and besides, he's happy building roads and bridges and ports (and now managing water resources). Sitharaman's promotion to the CCS means that a leadership that does not easily trust its own partymen has trust in this hardworking, no-nonsense woman.
But what of all those parliamentarians who do the rough and tumble of politics, toiling in the sun to meet constituents, address grievances and solicit votes? You could argue that they didn't win BJP the largest parliamentary majority since Rajiv Gandhi's in 1984; that it was all courtesy of Modi's personal popularity. Possibly. And possibly it won't hurt to short-circuit these MPs, the way the media is short-circuited in favour of 'direct contact' with the people. After all, they won't be criticised that the economy is in free-fall, the ex-central banker disowns demonetisation, and that there is no sight of acche din on the horizon.
Aditya Sinha's crime novel, The CEO Who Lost His Head, is available now. He tweets @autumnshade. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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