(manamlagaru.com)
Perennial Injustice to AP
Published in the Hans India on 28-07-2011
Union Council of Ministers since independence
Constitutional Provisions, Democratic Practices
and Established Conventions
Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may be credited with a cautious characteristic of talented, capable and gifted economist as well as hesitant, uncertain and indecisive Political Executive. Late PV Narasimha Rao adopted an “enabling mechanism” towards Manmohan leading to economic reforms during his tenure as the Finance Minister. As against this, Sonia Gandhi preferred the technique of imposing a “disabling mechanism”. Manmohan Singh’s formation, expansion and reconstitution of Union Council of Ministers either during his first term tenure or now is a clear indication of this. The worst sufferers are the MPs from Andhra Pradesh. Though in the recent reconstitution AP could manage to get “one plus and one minus quota”, the previous one in January had none. What a sad state of affairs!
Out of a total 300+ number of Cabinet Rank Ministers in the Union Council of Ministers of India since independence, representation from Andhra Pradesh is less than 20-barely 6%. Whether the state contributed all the 42 Lok Sabha Members to the ruling party of the day, or the maximum number compared to any other state the representation in the ministry has always been limited to the least. Similarly out of a total of 500+ number of other rank of ministers that of AP quota has been less than 25-barely 5%. In 64 years since Independence not even 50 leaders from AP could reach to the level of getting berths in the union council of ministers. Not even one per year on an average! The state has to be content and satisfied with the fact that despite all this one of its leaders could become Prime Minister and could serve full term and be responsible for introducing precious economic reforms. The situation has been similar, with marginal modifications, whether it was a Congress led government or BJP led government!
According to the Constitution, the Prime Minister of India and on his advice other Ministers in the Council are appointed by the President. However, only such person, who in the view of President enjoys the support of majority members of the Lower House of the parliament, is normally considered for appointment as Prime Minister. This is based on the British Parliamentary practice that “The King can do no wrong”. Though each minister is allotted a portfolio, the entire team of council of ministers individually and collectively is accountable to the Prime Minister and through him to the President and parliament. This is what is known as collective responsibility.
It is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to recommend the names of his choice to the President for appointment as Ministers and for distribution of portfolios. However, this choice is limited, when the Prime Minister and the President of the party in power are different persons. The choice is also limited when a single party does not command majority and on its own and need arises for formation of a Coalition Government. At present these two scenarios are in place and hence the boundaries of either formation or expansion or reconstitution of Council of Ministers are limited but not dynamic. The recent reconstitution of the Council of Ministers on January 19, 2011 by Prime Minister Manmohan Sing is an indication of his limitations.
The present Lok Sabha of India-the 15th one, came into being on 21st May 2009. Dr. Manmohan Singh took oath as the 14th Prime Minister of India heading the first UPA Government on 22nd May 2004 along with other 14 cabinet ministers. Subsequently, Prime minister extended his council of ministers by inducting a number of more ministers to it. Exactly after five years on 22 May 2009 he was sworn in second time heading the second UPA Government. Manmohan Sing’s first term council of ministers comprised of 29 Cabinet Rank including him, 8 ministers of state holding independent charge and 40 ministers of state attached to either Prime Minister or other Cabinet Ministers. The present council of ministers after the recent expansion on January 19th comprises of 37 Cabinet Rank including Prime Minister, 6 ministers of state holding independent charge and 37 ministers of state.
According to the data available from Lok Sabha Secretariat, the council of ministers since independence, in all, consisted of about 300 Cabinet Rank, 70 Ministers of State with independent rank, 360 attached to Cabinet Ministers and another 70 Deputy Ministers. The Council of Ministers in India in the beginning was a three-tiered one consisting Cabinet, State and Deputy Minister’s rank. However, Constitution has no provision for such a classification. India which adopted British practice of parliamentary democracy initially followed this. It was also necessitated keeping in view the administrative convenience. In effect, the Minister is defined as a Member of Council of the Ministers by whatever name called, and includes Deputy Minister. Prime Minister is first among the equals. However, when Morarji Desai became Prime Minister on August 14, 1977 and held the position for close to two years, changed the three-tier practice to that of two-tier. Though Rajiv Gandhi revived the practice and appointed few Deputy Ministers when he became Prime Minister, after a short while he promoted all of them. Now all are following the two-tier system. The Practice of classifying State Ministers in to independent charge and attached to Cabinet Minister has come in to vogue subsequently.
Eminent persons who served as Cabinet Ministers ranging from 5 days to 32 Years include among others: Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Dr BR Ambedkar, Dr Rajendra Prasad, N Gopalaswami Ayyangar, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Dr CD Deshmukh, Dr Shyam Prasad Mookerjee, C Rajagopalachari, Babu Jagjivan Ram, VK Krishna Menon, HN Bahuguna, MC Chagla, KM Munshi, NV Gadgil, LK Advani, VV Giri, YB Chavan, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, TT Krishnamachari, Gobind Vallbh Pant, Mohan Kumaramangalam, Jai Sukh Lal Hati, Uma Shankar Dikshit, Dinesh Singh, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, George Fernandes, DR Subramanian Swami, Ram Jethmalani, Dr Karan Singh, Justice HR Khanna, R Venkata Raman, Giani Zail Singh, Manmohan Singh, Ashoka Mehta and Pranab Mukherjee. Eminent persons like KR Narayanan, K Santhanam, Sheila Dikshit, Om Mehta, Prof MGK Menon and Nandini Satpathy did not get Cabinet Berths though they were in the council of ministers.
From Andhra Pradesh Kotha Raghuramaiah, Jalagam Vengala Rao, Dr. VKRV Rao, B Gopala Reddy, K Brahmananda Reddy, K Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, Dr. Marri Channa Reddy, Dr Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Damodaram Sanjivayya, P Shiva Shankar, G. Venkata Swami, K Chandra Shekher Rao, P Upendra, M Venkaiah Naidu, Bandaru Dattatreya, K Yerran Naidu and S Jaipal Reddy became Cabinet Ministers. T Anjaiah, Renuka Chowdhary, K Mallikarjun, Bangaru Laxman, SB Pattabhi Rama Rao, Rangayya Naidu, Ch Vidyasagara Rao, Jagannath Rao, Dr. KL Rao, P Ankineedu Prasad Rao, SBPBK Satyanarayana Rao, KV Raghunatha Reddy, P Venkata Subbaiah, UV Krishnam Raju, Dr. S Venugopala Chary, Panabaka Lakshmi, M.M. Pallam Raju, A. Sai Prathap and D. Purandeswari became the Ministers of State either with independent charge or attached to a Cabinet Rank Minister. There were also Deputy Ministers like JB Muthyala Rao, M Sanjeevi Rao, M Thirumala Rao, and P Venkata Reddy.
Babu Jagjivan Ram served the longest period and almost uninterrupted (except for 56 days) for 32 years, whereas Justice Khanna for only five days! PV Narasimha Rao and Kotha Raghuramaiah of Andhra Pradesh also served for nearly 15 years as Cabinet Ministers. For PV the period included his role as Prime Minister whereas Raghuramaiah in addition, also served as Minister of State for about five years.
Since August 15, 1947 as on date, there have been 14 Prime Ministers including Acting PM Guljarilal Nanda and Seven Deputy Prime Ministers two of whom became later as Prime Ministers. The first PM Jawaharlal Nehru was in office un-interrupted for the longest period of 16 years-9 months-13 days. His daughter Indira Gandhi was PM for 15 years-11 months-18 days spanning over two terms. Next longest period after her is the present PM Manmohan Singh who has already completed nearly 6 years-8 months from 22nd May 2004 to 26th January 2011. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in office of PM for 6 years-2 months-20 days. Rajiv Gandhi served as PM for 5 years-1 month-2 days. The first South Indian Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao was in office for 4 years-10 months-26 days. Two more persons who completed one year term were Morarji Desai who was in office for 2 years-4 months-5 days and Lal Bahadur Shastri for 1 year-7 months-2 days. Charan Singh for 6 months-18 days, Deve Gowda for 10 months-20 days, IK Gujral for 10 months-28 days, VP Singh for 11 months-8 days, Chandra Shekher for 7 months-11 days and Guljarilal Nanda for 28 days also served as Prime Ministers in between. The Deputy Prime Ministers were: Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, YB Chavan, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Devi Lal and LK Advani.
For Manmohan Singh expansions and reshuffles of the council of ministers are not many-twice or thrice during the first UPA Government and just one since 2009. It was however not the case with his predecessors. Jawaharlal Nehru in 16+ years either expanded or reshuffled as many as 63 times while his daughter in nearly 16 years did the same 67 times. Their political heir Rajiv Gandhi in just 5 years preferred changes as many as 36 times. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 6+ year term saw 27 times either changes or reshuffles. Morarji and Shastri in their brief tenures did it for 10 times. Charan Singh 6 times, Deve Gowda 4 times, Gujral 2 times, VP Singh and Chandra Shekher one time each affected changes in the council of ministers. PV Narasimha Rao in his five years tenure had just 9 changes including three major reshuffles.
Every time a minor or major change, an expansion or a major reshuffle takes place, a tactical message is being sent from quarters close to Prime Minister that, yet another such change is expected shortly to keep the hopes and aspirations of the disappointed lot alive! Manmohan Singh is not an exception to this! So may be one more expansion and one more injustice to Andhra Pradesh. But... why all this?
(Data Reference Source: “Council of Ministers” published by Lok Sabha Secretariat)
Good Analysis.
ReplyDeleteThis is because of Reddy lobby in AP Congress. 90% of the time they get CM post and majority AP Ministry berths.
Example: YSR got CM and most Reddy's got Minister berths in AP. As a deal with Sonia, they forsake Ministry positions at Center.
As oppose to Reddy lobby in AP, Karunanidhi got majority Central Ministry berths (key portfolios) for TN as a bargain for the support of 19 MP seats.