The Ring Master and his Troupe. The show begins...

Well Deserved???

Being an autocratic man, PM Narendra Modi made sure that he gets ONLY his people in the ministry (he didn’t even budge to the pressure from the oldest ally Shiv Sena over portfolio allocation). To make matters easier for him, even RSS (not that RSS has any choice left, so I assume) gave him a free hand to decide his inner coterie. Some names and their portfolios were on expected lines (I myself predicted a few since I have a reasonably sound understanding of our political landscape. Trying not being pompous here) whilst must admit others came in as surprise. Some good surprises and some ugly, very ugly! Here is a critical evaluation.

No prizes for getting them right

Being the “Kingmaker” Arun Jaitley was certain of amassing a huge booty from the King’s treasure. The Sr. Advocate, is widely known as the man responsible for the elevation of Modi as PM candidate. And hence his booty was as predicted. But honestly, I expected him to get External Affairs or Defence. Surprisingly, PM Modi didn’t appoint a technocrat as finance minister keeping in mind the economic revival agenda of BJP instead gave the responsibility to him along with additional charge of Defence. That's the first surprise. I can safely say that the King has been too 

generous. Touted as number two to Modi throughout the campaign, Rajnath Singh was expected to ge the charge of Home Ministry (the position is also considered second only to PM). Next in line was Sushma Swaraj (though she was on the anti-Modi camp, but couldn’t be left out) to land a plum portfolio. I anticipated that she will get either Defence or External Affairs Ministry. She is now the Minister for External Affairs. The troika of Rajnath Singh, Aurn Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj along with the PM was certain to make for the all important Cabinet committee on Security (CCS).

Members of CCS

The next in line was former BJP chief M. Venkaiah Naidu (he was also anti-Modi to begin with but swiftly changed his stance at the earlier stages of canvassing) has been rewarded with Urban Development (a key component of BJP Manifesto) and Parliamentary Affairs as additional charge. No surprises with the “flyover man” (Nitin Gadkari, also former BJP chief) getting a merged infrastructure portfolio. The man is known for his swift execution of infrastructure projects during his sting as PWD minister in the Maharashtra government. He now also has got the additional responsibility of Rural Development after the demise of Gopinath Munde. Another party heavyweight Ravi Shankar Prasad is been assigned the responsibilty of Telecom and additional charge of Law and Justice (which came as the next surprise as I expected him to only get Law and Justice taking into account his legal background). Remember telecom ministry is very crucial at the moment for retrospective tax on Vodafone and also the spectrum allocation scam.

Further, the party rewarded its consistent performer Ananth Kumar (6^th term MP from Bangalore-South) with the charge of Chemicals and Fertilizer ministry. The party's spokespersons Nirmala Sitharaman and Prakash Javdekar who consistently upheld party’s ideologies and defended its PM candidate across media platforms have got independent charge for a handful of ministries. Commerce and Industry for Sitharaman and Environment & Forest along Information & Broadcasting for Javdekar. (Note: Javdekar was denied ticket to contest from Pune and so he had to be accommodated). The party also handsomely rewarded its national treasurer Piyush Goyal for an astounding fund raising and micro-managing the campaign. (He is known to be very close to the corporate world as he is a management consultant and a corporate trainer). He has got an independent charge for merged energy portfolio comprising of Power, Coal and New & Renewable energy.  

Smart Moves

A very sensible move was to hand over the charge of Health and Family Welfare ministry to Dr. Harsh 

Gen. (Retd.) VK Singh

Vardhan. A thorough gentleman, he held this portfolio earlier in Delhi government (Dr. Harsh was at the forefront of reviving a young enthusiast who fainted during the PM's oath taking ceremony and also during the postmortem of former party colleague Gopinath Munde). Also, the inclusion of Najma Heptullah over Mukhtar Abbas-Naqvi as Minority Affairs minister came as a positive surprise. Minorities I feel will connect better to her rather than Naqvi, who is not liked by many amongst the minorities. A very smart move by Modi is the independent charge for development of Northeastern states to Gen. (retd.) VK Singh. The move is touted to use the expertise of the former army head to tame the rise of China in Arunachal Pradesh.

Ugly Surprises

Doing what she knows best : Spewing Venom

The ugly surprises came in the form of Smriti Irani getting a cabinet rank (Oh Come on! just because Modi calls her "chothi behen", she is actually rewarded for what? For unsuccessfully contesting against Congress heavyweights: Kapil Sibal and Rahul Gandhi? I think an Independent Charge would have sufficed. Add to it, she has got an HRD portfolio. The lady is not even a graduate, doesn’t have a vision of what she wants and doesn’t know what she speaks (is only good at spewing venom). Surprisingly, Modi lays lot of importance on skill development and hence a strategic person with a foresight is the need of the hour. In my opinion an additional charge of HRD to Dr. Harsh Vardhan would have been ideal.

Criterion for Cabinet Berth???

The next shocker came in for Harsimrat Kaur Badal also getting a cabinet rank as Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) just won four seats in Punjab (Shiv Sena has 18 MPs and got just one cabinet berth and nothing else). I expected Sanjeev Kumar Balyan (the man accused of hate speech which led to Muzaffarnagar riots) to be a junior minister. He is now an MoS for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries. Though expected, the reason I call it as an ugly move is because it shows that BJP acknowledges that the polarization caused by Sanjeev has helped the party immensely across the country (Its time Amit Shah stops taking credit for the party’s overwhelming performance in UP at least). The inclusion of many first timers in the ministry was not on expected lines. Does BJP indicate that they don’t have enough capable senior people? Or is it that Modi wants to have his say on every decision being taken?

Ummeed karte hai ki team Modi ka "Bharosa Nahi Todegi"

The Show Thus Far..
As it is clear from the signals that it will be a PMO led government and also the bureaucrats will be the guiding force, the allocation of portfolio merely becomes a to do exercise, barring a few. To sail through smoothly, the PM will have to rely heavily on bureaucrats and experts in the domain. And for the ministers, hope they are allowed to have a spine and the country does not dance to Modi’s tunes alone. Lets wait and watch what the Ring Master does with his Troupe. Finger crossed. With the state of affairs, will also cross my toes!!!

So what do you think? Write to me, would love to know your views.