Manmohan’s ministry: Crown heavier than king himself

YES, you heard it right…the little, sweet Mannu Uncle – a respectable economist-turned-Prime Minister-turned-Gandhi family loyalist (won’t call sycophant yet) – may find it a bit too hard to handle his 78-strong jumbo Council of Ministers.

However, the root of the plight of our so-called (Singh is) King does not lie so much in the size of his ministry as much as in the composition of it. Owing to the politics of compromise(s) and appeasement that the Indian democracy is witness to, Manmohan Singh’s Council of Ministers has characters of all castes, creed, regions, religions, complexions, shapes, sizes and age.

There are Farooq Abdullahs, Pranab Mukherjees, Sharad Pawars, Veerbhadra Singhs, Mamata Banerjees, Kamal Naths, Ambika Sonis, Kapil Sibals, Jaipal Reddys and Ghulam Nabi Azads, to name just a few, around him to keep pulling his strings from all sides, apart from the bed-ridden, oxygen-fitted ailing M Karunanidhi calling shots from his wheel-chair in Chennai! How many calls will Manmohan attend to!!!

Then there are the members of “youth brigade”, as Rahul Baba would affectionately call his peer group. In fact, why Sonia Gandhi and her Prime-Minister-in-waiting son took their time to finalise the Team Manmohan was also because they had thrown terms like “youth”, “change” and “young leadership” during their election speeches. This necessitated inclusion of at least some young faces, which complicated the whole process of naming ministers, with the allies demanding their shares in the government.

Now, what goes without saying is that those pretending-to-be-serious novice faces of the Rahul Brigade would have equal allegiance, if not more, to the younger Gandhi, too. So, while outwardly it may appear that the youngsters are acting as per the commandments of cute Manmohan Singh, the real hands remote-controlling the events would be those of the Gandhis.

However, to top it all, the biggest misery of Mannu Uncle remains his backdoor entry into Parliament: his entire Council of Ministers is formed of those proud winners of the Lok Sabha election, who can claim to be the true representatives of the people, whereas our nominated Prime Minister preferred to stay away from the poll arena. What a pity! Even I like the “person” called Manmohan Singh, but can’t feel the same way when it comes to “Prime Minister” Manmohan Singh.

His nomination as PM in 2004 was because of his clean image, proven competence as economist and his amiable persona, while 2009 saw his re-nomination solely because of his unquestioned loyalty to the Gandhi family. May the Almighty give him courage and wit to steer through the tough times he is headed for! Amen.

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