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Talent deficit biggest challenge for Modi as he builds new council of ministers

Modi may want to tackle criticism of a 'weak bench strength' while ensuring an eclectic mix of veterans, fresh faces & representatives from key regions and allies.

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New Delhi: Former finance minister Arun Jaitley ruling himself out of the next central cabinet just a day before Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi and his ministers are to be sworn in has further intensified speculation around what the cabinet will look like and the delicate balancing act Modi needs to follow.

Jaitley released a letter to Modi Wednesday where he requested the prime minister to keep him away from the new government citing health concerns.

— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) May 29, 2019

The biggest question mark now is on whether BJP president Amit Shah, who fought and won his maiden Lok Sabha election, will be formally inducted into the government. But in true Modi-Shah style of functioning, where nothing is obvious or certain till it is official, there is no clarity on whether and how the party president will actually make the transition.

Shah’s term as party president ended this January but he was re-elected to continue till the end of the Lok Sabha elections.

What is important for Modi is to try and overcome the widespread criticism of a ‘weak bench strength’, while also ensuring an eclectic mix of veterans, fresh faces and representatives from key regions as well as crucial allies.


Also read: Modi has a long list of challenges to tackle in his second term, say economists


The big four

According to a well-placed source in the BJP, there is “little doubt that if Shah does enter the cabinet, of which there are adequate indications, it would be as among the more important ministers in the top four”. Both the finance and home ministries, sources say, are possibilities.

In the outgoing government, while Jaitley was finance minister with Piyush Goyal filling in for him during his absence, Rajnath Singh took care of home affairs, Sushma Swaraj of external affairs and Nirmala Sitharaman of defence.

With Jaitley now out of contention and Swaraj — whose health is also a concern — not having contested the polls, the buzz is around whether Singh and Sitharaman’s portfolios will be shuffled, and if Goyal will get his big break to head finance.

Further, Nitin Gadkari — former party president who held multiple and critical infrastructure-related portfolios in the outgoing cabinet — could also be a potential candidate for the top four slots.

Balancing aspirations

The BJP may have won 303 seats riding high on the Modi factor, but the party knows it has to walk the fine line in balancing various aspirations — of allies, its own leaders, caste groups but most importantly, the states.

In the run-up to the elections, Modi-Shah displayed uncharacteristic flexibility and ability to accommodate allies, and now with the mammoth mandate, will hardly want to seem arrogant by relegating them to the margins.

Moreover, some of its own leaders will need to be rewarded. For instance, Smriti Irani, who was among the most difficult ministers in the outgoing cabinet and was shunted out twice from big portfolios, cannot be ignored completely after her stunning win against Congress president Rahul Gandhi in his stronghold of Amethi.

Similarly, senior politician Rita Bahuguna Joshi — a former Congress chief of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit who joined the BJP in 2016 — could also be brought into the cabinet, given she is a seasoned leader and has given up her ministries in the state government to come to the Centre.

Most crucial, meanwhile, is managing various states. The BJP pulled off a remarkable feat in West Bengal, winning as many as 18 of its 42 seats — up from just two last time — and hopes to further push its presence in the state in the run-up to the 2021 assembly polls. Similarly, the BJP managing four of the 17 seats in Telangana — a state where it had a negligible presence — has also come as a surprise.

According to another party leader, who did not wish to be identified, both West Bengal and Telangana will be given adequate representation, besides the Northeast. All these regions are new frontiers for the party and, thus, the top leadership cannot afford to not let the new council of ministers reflect their importance.


Also read: ‘India’s politics won’t allow it’: Pakistan on no invite for PM Imran to Modi swearing-in


 

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10 COMMENTS

  1. Congress has talent but the out of power, BJP in power, but lack of talent including PM Modi. Modi and Shah won’t like some one who would overshadow them. Like Late TM CM Jayalalithaa, they would like to be surrounded nt by weak and mediocare yes (wo)men. This is because most of its years were of role of Opposition and to criticise. They were also good in creating violence while in opposition, no wonder we saw less violence excepting in states where they want to make inroads eg West Bengal

    • For Pete’s sake, are you telling me that they are Modi and Shah are weak. They are some of the finest administrators the country has had. HIs previous ministers have performed extremely well and taken confident calls to move the system ahead for the long run. Mr. Rathore in Sports, Mr. Jaitley for good or bad in Finance, Ms. Swaraj in her MEA, Sitharaman and Mr. Parrikar in defence have transformed stance of defence and procurement, Piyush Goyal a gold medalist CA is in the running for Finance, Suresh Prabhu did extremely well in Railways with the transformation and successful launches, Mr. Gadkari has given the best Ministerial performance for highways with the surge in development highest in recent times. There are talented people, but these ministers apart from Modi – Shah might not be as flamboyant or equally charismatic.

  2. Talent is BJP’s Achilles’ heel and ideally Modi should break all barriers to build a competent team of selfless bureaucrats who can offer good counsel to their ministers and facilitate last mile delivery to citizens.

  3. “Lack of talent” and “weak bench strengths” are fake narratives spread by the Lutyens gang. Modi’s cabinet in the last 5 years was the best performing cabinet of my life time. My only criticism was that Irani was not a good fit for human resources, and she did not last anyway in that position.

    • Ofcourse with especially Finance, External Affairs, Civil Aviation, HRD, Railways, Defence, Agriculture all being standout performances. After all how can you ignore such staggering successes like Demonitization, 1000+tweaks to GST post rollout, economic blockade of Nepal and its move further towards China, resignations of IIT and IIM director, the new Rafael deal which actually delayed acquisition of new aircraft by at least 3 years meanwhile necessitating a fresh process for fighter aircraft, massive demonstrations by farmer groups in MP and Maharashtra and so on. Truly great performance!!

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