HVK Archives: Double act
Double act - The Week
Sachidananda Murthy
()
April 12, 1998
Title: Double act
Author: Sachidananda Murthy
Publication: The Week
Date: April 12, 1998
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's favourite hobby is cooking. Hence it was
no surprise that he began assembling a kitchen cabinet soon after
he won the trust of the Lok Sabha, with the liberal help of the
Telugu Desam.
And in choosing his close aides, Vajpayee was not hemmed in by
the pulls and pressures of either his allies in governance or the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The sangh parivar, which had vetoed
giving the finance ministership to Jaswant Singh who had lost the
Lok Sabha election, did not have much to object when he was made
deputy chairman of the planning commission and a permanent
invitee to the Union cabinet.
Another trusted colleague, Pramod Mahajan, was in the same
predicament as Singh. But Mahajan, who had a big hand in the
ministry formation and is seen as a potential party chief in the
near future, was made political adviser to the Prime Minister
with cabinet rank. He would be able to attend cabinet meetings,
though he will not have the vote.
More importantly, both Singh and Mahajan would be on hand to
identify potential troubles with the dozen allies supporting the
government from inside and outside, and also give vital political
input needed to run the government. Singh, who persuaded AIADMK
supremo Jayalalitha to not only give the letter of support but
also join the government, would continue to be the liaison person
for the southern star and her vital alliance.
Since the Prime Minister also presides over vast areas of
patronage in various appointments to committees, boards,
corporations and ambassadorships, Mahajan would be vetting the
position-seekers to find the "right kind of persons". Both Singh
and Mahajan are likely to come into the Rajya Sabha soon and
could then become regular ministers, while remaining the
principal troubleshooters.
If key appointments are coming in a cascade it is because
Vajpayee's shadow cabinet team, which included Singh, Mahajan and
Brajesh Mishra, a former diplomat who is now principal secretary
to the Prime Minister, had done the talent-scouting from January
itself.
The trust vote itself became easier once Chandrababu Naidu was
persuaded to interpret his equidistance decision to mean keeping
the Congress out of power. Thus Naidu concluded that the only way
to keep the Congress at bay was to have the BJP in power.
But the first week of Parliament gave Vajpayee a taste of things
to come when Parliament meets for longer sessions from May.
Since the Lok Sabha is vertically divided and the BJP and its
allies are in a minority in the Rajya Sabha, Parliamentary
Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana needs all his skills to keep
the government afloat.
Either Vajpayee or Home Minister L.K. Advani have to be
constantly present in the Lok Sabha, though the BJP wants both
Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj to handle the governmental
concerns.
This is because in a coalition, normally ministers from smaller
parties do not stick their neck out to tackle every opposition
attack, and leave it to the members of the Prime Minister's party
to defend their leader. This is what happened to both H.D. Deve
Gowda and I.K. Gujral, when sometimes it was left to the
formidable Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI(M), who was not in the
government, to defend the prime minister and his ministers.
Soft-spoken but firm, Brajesh Mishra heads the powerful Prime
Minister's Office because Vajpayee trusts him totally. "Vajpayee
can close his eyes and sign any file cleared by Mishra because
Mishra will steer clear of anything improper," says a former IFS
colleague of Mishra.
The powerful IAS lobby is surprised because Mishra has hardly had
any Delhi experience even in the foreign service, and they feel
that he will be handicapped by the lack of experience in
political ministries. But if Mishra gets enough opportunity he
can further surprise the IAS lobby.
Meanwhile, Vajpayee has had to work out his equations with
ministers belonging to different parties. For instance, when
Finance Minister Yeshwant Sinha was reluctant to give a free hand
to R.K. Kumar, who was given revenue, banking and insurance, the
AIADMK insisted on a separate order giving functional autonomy to
its junior minister. Finally an order was issued and Kumar got
control of the three crucial departments.
Similarly, ministers belonging to non-BJP parties have made it
clear that every key bureaucratic appointment in their ministries
will have to be cleared by them. However, Gujral had foisted
officers whom ministers Ram Vilas Paswan, C.M. Ibrahim, and B.B.
Ramaiah did not want, and they had to bear the burden.
But if the Vajpayee team were to annoy Samata Party's George
Fernandes or Nitish Kumar, AIADMK's Thambi Durai or Muthiah or
Kumar, the consequences can be disastrous for the government.
Hence the Prime Minister wants to go by the consensual method
within his own government, even while getting his own people in
place in key positions. After all Mahajan, the party leader with
the best connections in all parties, is needed to get further
support from the opposition ranks, especially when any ally
threatens to give trouble to the Prime Minister.
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