05-27-2010, 02:13 AM
came in email
Quote:During the press conference held to mark the first anniversary of the second
term of the United Progressive Alliance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faced
a barrage of questions about the various scams, controversies and
allegations faced by his Cabinet members.
Though the PM cautiously parried most such queries, the fact remains that
several ministers in his Cabinet continue to march to their own beat,
irrespective of the consequences. The soft-spoken Dr Singh appears
increasingly like a helpless film producer who has to put up with the mood
swings and tantrums of his hero, heroine and supporting actors to keep the
film afloat.
Take a look at illustrious ministers who believe in saying, doing, and
implementing whatever they fancy, accountability and collective
responsibility be damned.
Telecom Minister A Raja
The scale of the corruption charges levelled against Telecom Minister A Raja
would probably make even fraudster Bernie Madoff (sentenced to 150 years in
jail for orchestrating a $65 billion Ponzi Scheme) weep.
The minister has the dubious distinction of being at the centre of
independent India's largest financial scam worth Rs 60,000 crore, which may
even go up to Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1 trillion), according to some experts.
He is accused of allocating scarce 2G spectrum to certain favoured bidders
at throwaway prices.
Dr Singh reportedly had reservations about allotting the telecom ministry --
perceived as a 'lucrative' one for greedy politicians -- to Raja again. But
he had to bow down to the pressures of coalition politics, as Raja's party
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam made it clear that the support of its 18 MPs was
subject to the party being granted the lucrative ministry.
The PM and the Congress have no doubt regretted that decision since. Raja's
massive spectrum scandal has overshadowed any achievement by UPA-2, and the
PM has been forced to spend much time and effort answering for theminister's
alleged wrongdoings.
In spite of facing an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation, an
unrepentant Raja has refused to step down, claiming that he had simply
followed the government's then existing policy and opting for a 'first come,
first serve' criterion in spectrum allocation.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh
Jairam Ramesh, an engineering graduate from IIT Bombay, was once known as an
articulate, erudite speaker and a strategic planner. But that was till he
took over as theminister of environment and decided to take himself and his
job too seriously.
A perennial patient of the foot-in-the-mouth disease, Ramesh has had a
problem with almost everything and everybody. He has a point to make about
every topic under the sun and unfortunately for DrSingh, goes ahead and does
so, loud and clear.
Ramesh has probably been the busiest minister in the UPA-2 Cabinet. He
famously stated that 'India will get the Nobel Prize for filth'. He pledged
that India will try to match China's carbon emission standards. He called
convocation gowns 'barbaric'. He shouted at opponents of Bt Brinjal. He
questioned the working of the road transport ministry. He questioned the
working of the home ministry, while on Chinese soil.
Many political experts are surprised that he has not been given the boot
yet. That may be because of his closeness to 10 Janpath and his role in
strategisingthe Congress campaign that brought the party back to power last
year.
But tired of covering up for Ramesh's utterances, an irritated PM recently
rapped the environment minister, and none too gently at that. A mollified
Ramesh apologised to Home Minister P Chidambaram and promised to hold his
tongue in the future. On how long he will be able to keep his opinions to
himself, only time will tell.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee
She is the undisputed queen of tantrums and the champion of political
stunts.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is in charge of one of the most important
ministries in UPA-2 -- or at least supposed to be. Didi is rarely found at
Railway Bhavan inNew Delhi. She continues her Houdini act in Cabinet
meetings and Parliament sessions.
It is easier to find Banerjee in Kolkata, where she is busy organising
mammoth rallies that throw the city out of gear, accusing West Bengal
ChiefMinister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and his party of murder and mayhem, and
scouting for 'pro-people' issues now that the Singur and Nandigram
agitations have died down.
Banerjee didn't think issues like the motormen's strike in Mumbai, which
affected 65 lakh commuters in the metropolis, or the stampede at Delhi
railway station were worthy of her attention. When questions were raised
about her indifference, she claimed that it was a ploy by arch-rival
Communist Party of India-Marxist to 'send her back to Delhi'.
The minister, who had once accused a top police official of biting her
during a rally, didn't clarify if it was the stampede or the strike that was
orchestrated by the CPI-M.
The Opposition has dubbed her the 'absentee' minister. While Dr Singh has
refused to answer queries about the number of Cabinet meetings attended by
Banerjee or her performance, she has not bothered to return the courtesy.
A firm believer in the 'sulk-and-accuse' school of thought, Banerjee has
accused the Congress of colluding with the CPI-M in Bengal and of cheating
her party Trinamool Congress over the Women's Reservation Bill. To drive
home her displeasure with the ruling party, Banerjee refused to attend a
function in Kolkata with DrSingh, in spite of a special invitation from the
PM.
Chemical and Fertiliser Minister M K Alagiri
When DMK leader M K Alagiri was elected to the Parliament in 2009, political
watchers were worried about how he will follow the House proceedings, as he
speaks only Tamil and is not conversant in either Hindi or English. Little
did they know that the chemical and fertiliser minister had already devised
a fool-proof plan to rise to this challenge: he never attends Parliament.
Critics say that the minister dashes off to his hometown Chennai or his
constituency Madurai at every opportunity. But they are wrong. Apart from
flying to Tamil Nadu every three days, the 'frequent flyer'minister also
went for a holiday in Maldives and then to the US to meet his family within
a month.
He even decided to skip the crucial vote on cut motion in Parliament, when
Dr Singh and Congress MPs were desperately trying to shore up numbers to
survive the motion. Alagiri's absence was also noted during Question Hour in
the Parliament.
He has been pulled up by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar for his lack of
'courtesy and decorum' and blasted by the Opposition. But theminister seems
unfazed by the rebukes, and is trying to prove that his love for Tamil Nadu
is no less than his colleague Banerjee's affinity for Bengal.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel
Aviation minister Praful Patel is one of the richest MPs in Parliament. A
fact that he was forced to point out when reports about his involvement in
the multi-crore IPL scam began doing the rounds.
The member of Parliament from Maharashtra, who is considered to be the
crisis manager of his party, has ironically faced a host of crisesin his
stint in UPA-2. He has faced flak for his inability to revive Air India,
which is losing Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) a month and faces myriad
problems including pilot strikes, inefficiency and delays.
Fingers have been pointed at Patel on several decisions in his last five
years as minister that allegedly damaged the struggling airline's
competitive position.
And while Patel was trying to absolve himself of the blame for putting
India's national carrier on its deathbed, reports about his role in the IPL
scam surfaced.
Though Patel went to town claiming he had no stake in the IPL fiasco, it was
revealed that his daughter Poorna was the IPL hospitality manager, and had
allegedly leaked a confidential e-mail from the league's COO Sundar Raman's
office.
Patel was accused of forwarding a mail to then minister of state for
external affairs Shashi Tharoor, who backed the Rendezvous Sports World's
bid for the Kochi franchise, days before the IPL bidding, with a document
containing projections of new franchisee valuations.
Dr Singh has already lost a minister to the IPL brouhaha. Political
observers are now wondering if Patel will be the second sacrificial lamb of
UPA-2.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar
Instead of attempting to rein in the spiralling prices of food items,
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has been busy trying to pass on the blame
to the prime minister. During his second stint in the ministry, India found
itself in an ironical quagmire of rising food prices, tones of rotting food
grains and lakhs of Indians going hungry.
Instead of taking responsibility for the issue and initiating corrective
measures, Pawar went on record to say that he alone was not responsible for
the price rise, but the entire Cabinet and the prime minister were also
culpable. He even famously said he was not an astrologer to predict when
prices will come down!
To make matters worse, his irresponsible statements, speculating about the
possible rise in prices of certain commodities, are widely believed to have
actually pushed prices upwards. He was told by the Cabinet, in no uncertain
terms, to zip it and desist from such speculative statements.
The wily politician from Baramati was also dragged into the IPL controversy,
after reports indicated the involvement of his daughter and MP Supriya Sule,
and his own links with the Kochi team.
While both Pawar and Sule denied the reports, the NCP chief also defended
then IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi, claiming there was nothing wrong in making
public the names of the stakeholders of the Kochi franchise.
Home Minister P Chidambaram
To be fair, this lawyer-turned-politician is the most sensible of the lot.
In spite of being attacked by his own colleagues, including Jairam Ramesh
and senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, over his manner of functioning,
Chidambaram had maintained a dignified silence. He had, however, expressed
his displeasure to the prime minister, who made Ramesh publicly apologise to
the home minister.
But the pressure of constantly being questioned on the Maoist menace, which
has assumed dangerous proportions in the last one year, finally managed to
ruffle Chidambaram. During an interview with a TV channel, in the wake of
yet another attack in Maoist-infested Dantewada, Chidambaram admitted that
he was operating with a 'limited mandate'. He wisely refused to elaborate.
But the damage had been done. The Opposition, which had so far stood by the
home minister in his fight against Maoists, immediately pounced on the
statement. Chidamabaram's answer indicated the lack of will on the
government's part to tackle Maoists, they claimed.
The media also questioned the usually politically correct minister's
controversial statement, demanding to know what exactly he meant by it. When
queried about it, Finance Minister and UPA troubleshooter Pranab Mukherjee
tersely observed that "There cannot be a public debate on the problem. These
are issues that we will have to discuss in the Cabinet."
Even Dr Singh, who had turned down Chidambaram's resignation in the wake of
the Dantewada massacre, said ministers should express opposing views inside
the Cabinet, and not in public. Will his advice be heeded by his pack of
ministers?