All the Singh's Men

The Manmohan Singh Government had promised to achieve a lot in 100 days after coming back after already having been there during the previous five years.

It is over 200 days now and by way of the so-called ‘all-inclusive growth’ that they claim to propound, the main achievement which people see is the ‘all-inclusive’ uncontrolled inflation that spares no one and is especially hurting the poor and the middle class who continue to be at the receiving end.

Leaving aside a broader analysis of his Government’s working, it is worthwhile to list some (but not all) of the useless, the non-performers and the laggards in his Ministry. Even more important it is to list some of the Ministers whose working is not aboveboard, to put it extremely mildly.

Crown of Thorns

Starting with Manmohan Singh, he has to his credit mainly his honesty of purpose and dedication. Other than that, he has left no one in doubt that he does not have the will or the inclination to act on many issues relating to Government which he is supposed to head, without the say-so of his Party Boss. It is perhaps, this determination not to upset the apple cart driven by his Boss that keeps him from taking action against erring Ministers in the Cabinet.

Sharad Pawar

Sharad Pawar - useless and incompetent

At the top of the list of Ministers whose continuance is doing immense harm to the country is obviously, Sharad Pawar. His indifference and his callous approach to matters under him are too widely recognized. Amidst continuous and unrestrained rise in prices of food products, he has been inventing any number of excuses ever since his first term where he started by blaming fuel prices, rise in international prices (even if the country is self-sufficient) and a host of other excuses unrelated to his own incompetence. While repeating ad nauseum that the Government is very serious and doing everything possible (cleverly saying Government not just himself, to put the blame on the entire Government), he has very little to show for what actually he has done himself. Of course, during his term, there has been a wheat scam, a sugar scam, a rice scam and perhaps, some as-yet-not-known scams. But scams and motivated decisions have always been known to be there wherever he is involved. Knowing his past and present, there may be very few in the country, who will honestly vouch for his integrity. If he is still surviving in the Ministry, it is only because of his manipulative and arm-twisting capability vis-a-vis Singh's Party Boss.

Apart from the present dismal situation of food availability, Pawar has hardly done anything worthwhile to ensure the food security of the people for the future. In fact, due to the total lack of any purposeful actions during his term, the country is headed for a serious scarcity situation in the years to come. That is the legacy this man is going to leave for the people. He may well be voted the worst Agriculture Minister the country has had so far.

After having run out of believable explanations and excuses, he has repeated without a modicum of sense of responsibility, for the second time in as many months that only an astrologer can predict when the prices would come down. What the aam admi needs now is an astrologer not to predict when the prices would come down, but for how long would the country suffer him as a Minister.

He needs to be removed from the Ministry, whether ceremoniously or unceremoniously, but without delay. The aam admi has been waiting to say Good Riddance to him.

Praful Patel

Praful Patel

As Minister for Civil Aviation in the previous Government, he has successfully mismanaged the national carrier Air India/Indian Airlines under the tutelage of his party chief Pawar. That an airline with a globally known Brand was brought on the brink in such a short period speaks volumes for this Minister’s capabilities. And yet, he has kept on saying that Air India was always free to take decisions and at the same time blaming global recession for its woes. Those in the airlines, including the employees’ Unions, know only too well about the interference in their affairs which not only accelerated the financial losses but also the loss of market share to other airlines with whom the Minister and his Boss are known to have cozy relations. ( see also here)

Apart from the airlines debacle, favors were also granted to the GMR/GVK led Consortia running Delhi and Mumbai airports, by allowing them to recover from hapless passengers airport development fees after the contract was won by them based on the original tender conditions. An effort is also being made to favor GVK led Joint Venture for Mumbai Airport by allowing them to sell 200 acres of land, ostensibly taken for airport development earlier, to give them a windfall of over Rs, 10,000 crores. Of course, these two incidents have caught the people’s attention as they are now in public domain. Skeletons that may still be rattling underneath the Civil Aviation carpet will be known only when they spring out in future.

S M Krishna

S M Krishna

After coming out from gubernatorial hibernation, he has been favored with the External Affairs portfolio. International Relations is a sensitive issue requiring a Minister to have considerable vision and an alert mind. S M Krishna, a Fulbright scholar is performing only as half-bright and is constantly at sea and at loss of words to forcefully convey anything sensible on foreign policy. Foreign Policy has always been a weak point with India and giving such an important Ministry to a person whose mind is no longer alert and where he is totally out of depth can only further weaken India’s stature in the world. It is hardly possible to gain in stature by offering good hospitality to foreign dignitaries as is being done by Krishna.

Murli Deora

Deora

As Petroleum Minister, he has been seen to be consistently supporting and favoring a particular business group with whom he is known to have close relations. He is also the Minister who in November 2008 bypassed the Prime Minister by writing directly to the party boss about pricing of petroleum products, a subject which was under the discussion within the Government possibly also violating his Oath of Office. So much for his loyalty to his Prime Minister, who unfortunately is not able to act despite such incidents and despite the Minister having made the Government go through awkward situations in a legal dispute on gas pricing.

Mamata Banerjee

Mamata

The absentee Railway Minister who promised a White Paper on Railways during Laloo’s time, did publish the White Paper along with a Vision Document. But everyone knows that her heart and mind are set on the West Bengal Chief Minister’s seat. For all practical purposes, she is just warming the Railway Minister’s chair till the elections. Not much can be expected when most of her time is spent in her home state.

A. Raja

Raja

He is a liability thrust upon the people by DMK, the coalition partner of the present Government. His suspect role in the 2G Spectrum scam that led to a huge loss estimated to be Rs. 22,000 crores to the public exchequer – the tax payer is by now known to everyone, including the Prime Minister who is intent on keeping such bad apples in the apple cart. Raja like many other Ministers in similar situations, is defending himself saying he only followed procedures and also consulted the Prime Minister, forgetting that as Minister, he is responsible to ensure that the public exchequer gets what it should and he is there not just to follow procedures.

CP Joshi

Joshi

He is a laggard whose only interest, as seen during the Lok Sabha debates was to question the opposition parties for what they did not do, rather than answering the questions put to him. He could not clarify exactly what, if anything, he was doing himself as Minister. His highly immature performance during the Lok Sabha debates does not inspire any confidence at all in his ability to do justice to his job.

Azhagiri alias Alagiri

Azhagiri

He is another liability on the people from DMK. It is not known how he can perform any of his responsibilities without communicating with the Babus and Cabinet colleagues except by sign language when he does not understand any language other than his own mother tongue. Sadly, Singh is unable to even ask him to quit because Singh does not speak in Tamil.

Sushil Kumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh

Shinde
Vilasrao

Two of the lacklustre Ministers from Maharashtra have practically nothing to show for what they have done. While Vilasrao obviously does not have to do much at the Centre where he can no longer oblige the builders and developers, Shinde is in charge of the critical power ministry. They have been carrying on with the same tardiness which is their characteristic.

Some others

Then there are the goofer-gaffers, flipper-floppers and twatter-twitters. Sincere though they may be, they are prone to land the Government in embarrassing situations from time to time.

Azad
Sibal
Jairam
Tharoor

While the above is a listing of only the Ministers, mention must be made of two others who are in similar high positions but the people are unclear about their usefulness.

Montek Singh
Narayanan

Montek Singh’s achievement as Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission is hard to evaluate as he has been largely seen commenting only on matters on which the Ministers concerned are required to speak. Narayanan’s actual contribution as the National Security Advisor also remains obscure.

The above list is naturally not exhaustive and there may be other Ministers well qualified to take the place in the backhanded Honor Roll. Readers are free to make their nominations in the Comments section.





* For a plot synopsis of the well-known movie "All the King's Men", see here.