Regional presence a must in reshuffle of Union Cabinet

First, in the parliamentary form of government, it is the Prime Minister who leads the team of his ministers in the Parliament and ultimately, it is they (Council of Ministers), who are responsible, not only to the Parliament, but also to the people, for all their actions.  The Prime Minister, known in Latin as Primus Inter Pares (first among the equals) has the prerogative to drop ministers who are not working up to his expectations and to induct new ones to give thrust to the areas and ideas that he considers important to the country.  

The present expansion of the ministry has clearly indicated that the PM needs ‘specialists’ rather than ‘generalists’. A person like Hardeep Singh Puri is a former Indian Foreign Service officer and he was India’s permanent representative to the UN.  He has enormous experience in working with the UN and with its specialised agencies.  

This experience of Puri will give him new ideas in the ministry he has been entrusted with -- housing and urban affairs.  RK Singh, KJ Alphons, Shiv Pratap Shukla and Satya Pal Singh come from a background of being administrators, with vast knowledge in different fields and their own specific knowledge and interest.  The trend of bringing ‘experts’ is a good idea and it also raises a doubt whether we are moving away from the Parliamentary form to the Presidential form.  

It is in the US that the President enters the White House with his team and leaves at the end of his tenure with the team.  The President can bring anyone in his team (Cabinet) irrespective of their political affiliation.  The President’s team in US is an expert team.  Unlike ours, they need not be members of either House of the Congress (Legislature). The presence of regional parties in the council of ministers has taken a beating in this recent reshuffle.  When the ministry was formed in 2014 after the general elections, the supporting partners were inducted in the ministry.  

This expansion cum reshuffle did not include the partners in the NDA.  There was speculation that the new partner JD (U) would join the ministry but they were excluded.  This expansion cum reshuffle has thrown a new challenge of forming ministry by one party.   

For nearly two decades the governments formed in the centre were coalition governments either under NDA or UPA and only in 2014 did the BJP receive absolute majority in the Parliament (crossing the half-way mark of 273).  The question worth examining is whether the majority party not only forms the government, but also that the council of ministers come from the same party and keep the alliance partners as a support-base from outside.  

The advantage of keeping the regional parties will strengthen the federal character of our country. They are the ones who best bring the regional issues to the national level for discussion and solution.  If democracy and federalism are to be strong, and remain so, then the council of ministers should include representation from the regional parties.