When Gogoi feels helpless?

The report that Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is finding it difficult to keep away ministerial aspirants is disturbing. The experiment of providing an effective State administration with minimum number of ministers came to an abrupt end in Assam when owing to pressures from different quarters Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had to induct 20 new faces in his cabinet. It’s not long ago that Mr. Gogoi was voted as one of the best Chief Ministers in the country for his endeavour to curb government expenditure in an opinion poll conducted by India Today. The fact, that the Assam Chief Minister took more than a year to expand his cabinet, was indicative enough about his mindset. Mr. Gogoi was comfortable with his small team. But it’s a pity that his party colleagues were having different ideas. They gave priority to their personal interests ahead of the common interest of the State. Nowadays, jumbo-sized ministries are very common in India. Lure for a berth in the cabinet often leads the MLAs to change their camp. To prevent this and provide stability to their governments ruling party leaders resort to a bigger cabinet. During the Nipamacha regime in Manipur, barring one, all ruling party MLAs became ministers. To muster majority in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, Kalyan Singh lured opposition MLAs into his fold with ministerial berths and as a result the State had to bear the cost of more than hundred ministers.

One former prime minister once remarked that to strengthen the Indian democracy, credibility of democratic institutions should be restored. But, because of power-hungry politicians the credibility of such institutions is eroded with every passing day. When he decided not to include the MLAs in his cabinet who had won for the first time, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi advised them to go back to their constituencies and work for the people. But, instead of going back to the constituencies, the MLAs often flew to Delhi to lobby with the party high command for their induction in the Gogoi ministry.

Apart from lowering the credibility of democratic institutions, jumbo-sized ministries are a stumbling block for development. As most of the states in the country are in red, increase in number of ministers put tremendous pressure on the states exchequer and the developmental process became the first victim. Although Tarun Gogoi has taken some measures to ensure that the jumbo-sized ministry does not affect developmental programmes, those can be best described as ‘cosmetic’. His own party has rejected his experiment of curbing government expenditure by reducing number of ministers.

|  Headlines  |  Editorial   | From Other Publications  |
|  Travel Column   |   News Briefs  |
| OT Main Page | Nena  Home Page  |