 |  | |
| SUBSCRIBE | |
 | |
| CURRENT ISSUE | |
| |
| |
| LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | |
| |
| MAIL OF THE WEEK | |
| |
| OFFTRACK | |
| |
| BODYLINE | |
| |
| INDIASCOPE | |
| |
| EXPERT VIEW | |
| |
| |
| YOUR WEEK | |
| |
| EYECATCHERS | |
| |
| UPCOMING EVENTS | |
| |
CURRENT ISSUE MAY 29, 2006 |
COVER STORY: MINISTERS' RANKING |
 |
| The Best And The Worst The UPA regime is retarded by non-performers. While ministers from allies have delivered, Congress ministers are trapped between national imperatives and ballot politics. | |||||||||
| By Shankkar Aiyar | |||||||||
 The images are inescapable-students braving water cannons and lathi-charges, state muscle in uniform deployed on the streets-and are haunting living rooms across the country. Elsewhere, headlines scream about the emerging India. The contradiction symbolises a government at siege from within. Two years after its birth, the UPA regime is trapped between the stated imperatives of growth and the quest of the Congress and its allies for political relevance and survival. The confusion is reflected in the perceptional rankings of ministers by India Today editors too. Unlike Congress ministers who are either cribbing about coalition politics or are busy collecting electoral brownie points, ministers from the allies, secure about their politics, have focussed on the job on hand. Politics is the art of the possible. But the top performers are the exceptions that prove the rule. Conflict and reconciliation are inevitable in any political landscape, particularly so in a coalition government. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel (No. 1) has proved that modernisation of airports or the merger and streamlining of the national carriers is possible if one is willing to step out of the hallowed environs of the ministry and negotiate with the stakeholders. Indeed, he had to work his way around the objections of the Left Front. By allowing debate, Patel has taken the sector forward primarily because he believes there is a constituency and dividend for growth. Long maligned, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav (No. 2) has made the Railways a showpiece, even if it was by allowing enlightened managers to run the ministry. it and Telecommunications Minister Dayanidhi Maran (No. 4) wooed investments of over $10 billion and brought down std tariffs, delivering both jobs and growth to prove that good economics can be good politics too. Congress ministers too have walked the talk. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram (No. 3) must have negotiated hard to insulate growth from the virus of fiscal profligacy that coalitions are infected with. Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath (No. 5) delivered on his promise of $100 billion exports and higher FDI. But these are exceptions. Of the 39 ministers, 22 fail to muster a score of even 35 (out of 100) and a majority are from the Congress. Ministries like labour, mines, and textiles, where reforms are critical, are among the laggards. Worse, ministers are frequently shuffled leaving them with little time to ideate and execute. You could argue that major reforms must begin at the state level but beyond the success of vat there is little that this Government can showcase in terms of Centre-state cooperation. There is also the multiplicity of controls that the Singh Parivar had promised to address. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar can only do so much to push investment in critical inputs like irrigation when water is governed by seven ministries. True, the Government has pushed new initiatives like the National Employment Guarantee Scheme, Bharat Nirman and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan but beyond the rhetoric of slogans there is little sign of their impact.We are yet to be told about jobs created or the improvement in school dropout rates. Sectors like retail, which can deliver millions of jobs, are blocked by political myopia. Just take away the buoyancy of the economic indices for a perspective on the performance of the ministers. Mercifully, India at home is not the picture of India Everywhere, be it Davos or Hannover. Transnationals are rushing in to hold investor meets, FDI and exports are ballooning and the economy is growing at over 7 per cent. But much of this is a momentum play. The Congress must recognise that the poor waiting for deliverance are the biggest vote bank and growth is the best electoral strategy. As they say in the US, it's the economy, stupid. with bureau reports Of the 39 ministers, 22 fail to muster a score of even 35 and a majority are from the Congress.
| |||||||||
 | |
 | |
| CURRENT ISSUE MAY 29, 2006 | |
 | |
| IN THIS ISSUE | |
| COVER STORY | |
| |
|
| |
| OTHER STORIES | |
| Bitter Medicine | |
| |
|
