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| Cabinet Reshuffle |
The UPA elephant entered work on Sunday, supported by much thunderous trumpeting and feet-stomping. Astrologers who had peered at planetary alignments and deconstructed astrological readings guaranteed the born-again UPA Cabinet will bring in regards to a major “image makeover” from the government Body that will set a dark tone throughout its term. The brand new-born, i was guaranteed, would bear the genetic code of Rahul Gandhi, and brim with youthful vigour.
But in the end the fretful exertions from the Cabinet reshuffle of Sunday, the verdict is within: the elephant, it seems, has created a mouse.
It was possibly probably the most anti-climactic Cabinet reshuffles ever, and mainly the exercise fell victim towards the irrational heightening of anticipation in front of it.
Predictably, media commentaries happen to be downbeat within their assessment. They indicate the reshuffle as getting unsuccessful to use the final opportunity for the UPA 2 government to show the page on the lacklustre term at work as less than narrating a “persuasive or coherent story of change“ to be excessively dependent on “a political model centred around regional appeasement, traditional loyalties and patronage networks“ so that as reflecting old-world identity politics instead of any resolve to upgrade governance, by inducting merit and youth into Ministerial ranks.
The issue, since many commentaries have noted, would be that the reshuffle makes for several activity, but hardly any by means of decisive action. For the hype all around the infusion of “young blood” into Manmohan Singh‘s Ministry, the typical chronilogical age of your cabinet has, as Economist magazine highlights, hardly come lower whatsoever: from nearly 65 years of age, pre-shuffle, to simply over 64 now. And also the primary preoccupation seems to possess been with addressing political compulsions and accommodating regional representation, instead of on improving governance standards or rewarding good performance.
Contrary, the Congress continues to be borderline brazen in the way that has “rewarded” Salman Khurshid by moving him in the Law Ministry towards the high-profile Exterior Matters Ministry. Khurshid hasn’t yet been removed from the serious accusations against him: of forgery to hide misappropriation of funds with a trust that his family runs. And also to that extent, his elevation within the Cabinet signifies a callous disregard for public sentiments and norms that govern propriety in governance. Without prejudice to Khurshid’s qualifications, his ‘promotion’ signifies an incentive for his noisy-mouthed, cringe-worthy loyalty towards the empire that presides within the Congress’ future.
Congress spin doctors already are working overtime to project the elevation from the “youth brigade” as bearing the private imprint of Rahul Gandhi. This breathless commentary claims the reshuffle “carries the very first unshakable stamp of Rahul Gandhi’s ascendancy” within the Congress party. The obvious concentrate on the rise from the “younger set” within the reshuffle, it claims, is áscribed to Rahul Gandhi’s “growing involvement” in government matters. It added, stating UN named sources; this was the very first time that Rahul Gandhi had “cast aside his aloofness to go over the ministerial team using the Pm.”
But when your time and effort were truly to project a generational change within the administrative set-up, it’s hard to explain why no youth brigade was handed a Cabinet berth, but were rather requested to be satisfied with Minister of Condition status with independent control of their Ministries.
One plausible explanation is the fact that not even close to being powered by Rahul Gandhi, the more youthful set is really being held back from getting their possibility of fear they might finish up outshining Rahul Gandhi.
As Pratap Bhanu Mehta highlights, the interest rate from the promotions (from the more youthful lot) continues to be glacial. “It is difficult to get rid of the sensation that youthful leaders can't be given responsibility in ways that there's a danger of these overshadowing Rahul Gandhi. The culture from the Congresss party is really that before the moment Rahul (Gandhi) decides to truly lead, it will likely be a hardship on other people to stake out a completely independent history of feat.”
Internet-internet, where will the reshuffle leave the UPA? When it comes to optics, the reshuffle signifies lots of frenetic activity. However in the ultimate analysis, the UPA government resides on lent time, without much to exhibit by means of performance in the second successive term. It faces the real prospect of the early election, one whose campaign styles is going to be focussed around the monumental corruption scams under its watch. The only real savior for that UPA would be that the principal Opposition, the BJP, is in a condition of disarray, and grappling using its own baggage of corruption and dubious business practices of their leaders.
The Manmohan Singh government’s best choice could be for this to test and alter the narrative throughout its term at work by setting a bold reformist economic agenda. But it’s difficult to see Sunday’s reshuffle as getting led towards this kind of objective.
Sources: Google News, Washington Post, CNN.
See Also: Indian News.
Post Tags: Cabinet Reshuffle, Manmohan Singh, Politicsdecoder, Rahul Gandhi, Salman Khurshid, Upa Government, Indian News.
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