PM becomes assertive in ministry formation

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has become assertive and has shown his mettle while finalising his council of ministers. The selection process shows Dr Singh's touch and Congress President Sonia Gandhi's mindset.

The average age of the Cabinet ministers is 66 while that of the MoS team is 45.

The prime minister's assertiveness shows in the sacking of Hansraj Bharadwaj and T R Baalu. The two were the cause of immense headaches to Dr Singh during the last regime.

The reason for the removal of Bharadwaj, who was law minister last time, may be the last-minute clean chit to Bofors accused Octavio Quattrocchi and the removal of the Interpol Red Corner notice against him.

It was the prime minister who took a clear-cut decision to keep the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's T R Baalu out. The reason was that Baalu told teh Rajya Sabha that he has written to the PM's office about gas supplies for his son's company, King Chemicals.

The fact that the two were kept out is a clear indication that Sonia Gandhi also did not interfere in Dr Singh's choice.

The others on whom the PM held firm were Jairam Ramesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jayanti Natarajan.

There were pressures and counter-pressures to elevate Scindia and accommodate Ramesh in the Cabinet. But Singh held firm, though he gave Ramesh MoS with independent charge.

It was Ramesh who was chief commander of the Congress 'war room' during the election campaign.

Jayanti Natarajan did well in articulating the party's viewpoint to television news channels and fought the Bharatiya Janata Party's media war, but she did not even make the list.

The prime minister, it is said, was livid when he learnt that that television news channels were flashing the names of those he had just spoken to regarding ministry formation.

But while he has become assertive and punished those who spoke against him, he has added many youngsters at the instance of party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

The prime minister has also decided to ask Cabinet ministers to give due importance to their MoS in the decision-making process.