The absence of key ministers on Thursday forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to defer a crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Prices.
The meeting was earlier planned to discuss price rise and formulate an action plan to combat it. But as Union agriculture, food and civil supplies minister Sharad Pawar is in Maharashtra and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is camping in Kolkata, the meeting has been rescheduled for October 19.
As many as nine Cabinet ministers were absent. According to sources, apart from Pawar and Banerjee, ministers like Vayalar Ravi (overseas Indian affairs), Farooq Abdullah (new and renewable Energy), M K Alagiri (chemicals and fertilisers), A Raja (communications and information technology), Anand Sharma (commerce and industry) and Murli Deora (petroleum and natural gas) couldn't attend the meeting on Thursday.
Sharma and Deora are currently abroad on official assignments while others are in their respective states.
Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni, however, tried to play down the absence of the ministers. "You can say a minister is absent only if he or she has not given prior intimation of absence. But all the ministers who couldn't attend today's meeting had informed the Cabinet secretariat well in advance about their preoccupations. So, technically, no one can be termed as absent in today's meeting," she told Business Standard.
Soni also claimed the Cabinet agenda was prepared keeping in mind the attendance of the ministers. "No agenda had to be deferred in today's Cabinet meeting," Sonia said.
While the Cabinet took up just three major issues apart from a few bilateral agreements, the other key meeting that had to be deferred today was a sitting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, slated to decide on the dates of the next Parliament session. This, too, has been rescheduled for October 20.
This delay in convening the meeting of the CCPA might affect the schedule of the winter session as well. Generally, the norm is to convene the session after 21 days of the CCPA meeting.
This is meant to enable MPs from faraway areas to plan their Delhi travel. Initially, the government had planned to begin the winter session from November 9 and wrap it up a couple of days before Christmas.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is a member of almost all crucial Cabinet committees, as she is the biggest ally of the Congress in the United Progressive Alliance's second government, with 20 MPs.
But ever since she became the railway minister, she has not attended several Cabinet meetings due to her engagements in West Bengal. Currently, Banerjee is spending all her time in seven Assembly by-elections due in West Bengal.
The seven other Trinamool Congress ministers of states in the UPA have also been ordered by Banerjee to leave Delhi and camp in the state for the by-poll campaign.
Pawar, who was spearheading the Assembly election campaign in Maharashtra during the past two weeks, is yet to return to Delhi from Mumbai.
