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| For most junior ministers, it's no work and all play |
| BS Reporters / New Delhi Aug 10, 2009, 00:14 IST |
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The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has come back to power for a second time, but nothing seems to have changed for S S Palanimanickam — neither his portfolio, nor his work profile. The DMK Member of Parliament continues to have no work.
During the UPA's first stint, Palanimanickam's party chief K Karunanidhi complained to UPA Chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi that former Finance Minister P Chidambaram was not sending his minister of state (MoS) any files. After Gandhi’s intervention, the DMK loyalist started getting some files on his desk. But Palanimanickam is now back to square one — his desk is squeaky clean, this time under Pranab Mukherjee.
Many of Palanimanickam’s colleagues in the UPA ministry share the same work profile — plum assignments on paper but little substantive work to do. Take the case of Arun Yadav, who has proved to be unlucky twice over. He was initially given an MoS slot in the sports and youth affairs ministry. Although cabinet minister M S Gill didn’t deprive Yadav of foreign tours, important files seldom came his way. Yadav managed to move out to the ministry of heavy industries under Vilasrao Deshmukh, but Congress sources said he is uncomfortable here too, since Deshmukh prefers to do all major work himself.
The junior ministers have, however, made sure that the boss knows what’s going on — a reason Gandhi recently told senior ministers that MoSs should not be “just left for filling the chairs”.
According to party sources, MoSs like Ajay Maken (home), Arun Yadav and Gurudas Kamat (IT & telecom) are some of the “victims” working under heavyweight seniors.
“There is no complaint about the performance of these ministries, but the juniors feel they can contribute in a much better way if given opportunities,” a top UPA minister told Business Standard.
According to top sources, Kamat has privately told party bosses that his cabinet minister A Raja is not giving him enough work. Kamat is officially in charge of the department of post, but recently, when the ministry launched its flagship “Project Arrow to upgrade the technology in 500 post offices, the job was given to the other MoS, Sachin Pilot.
Ajay Maken is also unhappy with his job profile. Although the Naxal problems and human rights violation issues have been officially given to him, his senior P Chidambaram is handling the Naxal menace directly given the gravity of the problem.
Other parties, too, are facing the same problems. Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress (TC) chief Mamata Banerjee has already told the Congress leadership that some of her party ministers (TC has six MoSs) are doing nothing but warming their chairs. TC’s nominee in the information & broadcasting ministry, C M Jathua, is keen to get more work, while MoS (Rural Development) Shishir Adhikary has conveyed to Banerjee that cabinet minister C P Joshi “hardly consults him”.
Pradeep Jain, one among the three MoSs in the rural development ministry, has similar problems. Jain has only seen files related to parliamentary questions during the past one month and according to sources in Jain’s office, he is yet to get any departmental file from the senior minister. He attends departmental meetings mainly with the senior minister, but has hardly held independent meetings with officials ever since he took charge. Jain, incidentally, is considered close to Rahul Gandhi.
Panabaka Lakshmi, MoS, textiles, has also told her Congress party colleagues that her new portfolio is “marginally better” than her previous stint as MoS, health and family welfare. “I didn’t get much work during my first tenure. This time, too, I am unhappy with my work profile,” she told her party colleagues.
Some junior ministers, however, have been luckier and have their hands full. TC ministers like Saugata Ray (urban development) and Dinesh Trivedi (health) have no complaints against their seniors. Ray is looking after the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and urban transport. And Trivedi has “everything that he wanted — from AIIMS to AIDS mission”.
“We work like partners,” Trivedi said about Ghulam Nabi Azad. MoS (defence) M M Pallam Raju is also happy working with A K Antony as his senior minister. He is looking after welfare of ex-servicemen and ordnance factories among other things. Antony has also allowed Raju to answer questions in Parliament— the ultimate parameter of the trust of a senior minister.
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