CABINET FORMATION A NON- RATIONAL EXERCISE

On the face of it, cabinet formation should be about matching the best person to the right job. However, in reality, it is anything but that: in fact , cabinet constitution in India is primarily a non- rational political exercise . Only a handful of heavyweights manage to get key ministries matching their experience , expertise and political stature .Beyond that ,some ministers have to be cut to size - so they're not given the ministry of their choice ( P. Chidambaram; D. Maran ) ; others have to be merely pruned - so their ministry/ status is pruned ( Praful Patel, Sharad Pawar); still others are included in view of forthcoming / recently concluded assembly elections their state ( Vilasrao Desh mukh , Subodhkant Sahai ) ; besides , a few are included at the behest of political lobbyists / networking( Sushil Shinde ) while others are vetoed by the competing colleagues ( Girija Vyas , Sandeep Dixit ) ; Moreover, the secondary parameters of caste (Ku. Sailaja, M. Khadge , Mukul Wasnik, K. Teerath ) ,community
( S.Khurshid) , region ( Shrikant Jena, Harish Rawat), tribe ( Kantilal Bhuria )and gender ( D.Purandeshwari ) have to be balanced too alongwith coalition compulsions wherever applicable ( Agatha Sangma) -; The tertiary criteria of age ,lineage and experience also have to factored in ( zhagiri ).All this leaves only a small window for those chosen purely on merit ( Shashi Tharoor ; Parag Jain )... Usually the ones who satisfy the primary, secondary as well as tertiary criteria ( viz . region, community and political stature ) get the cabinet berth ( Farooq Abdullah ); those matching the primary and
Secondary parmeters a re given m.o.s with independent charge
( Panbaka Lakshmi) and the ones fitting only a tertiary criteria land m.o.s ( Arun Yadav,) .Every cabinet constitution some new ministries being created (min.of non- conventional energy resources ) , others being combined / re combined; some erstwhile relatively unimportant ministries acquire importance in a particular phase ( HRD, Surface transport )
The major difference in cabinet constitution between western democracies and India is that while theirs is primarily a rational exercise with a bit of non- rationality thrown in ,ours is predominantly a non-rational act with rationality as mere symbolism; ours get done in phases and emotional factors play greater role (accommodating/ compensating the disgruntled elements). Its outcome is for all to see - whereas the western ministers peform and deliver, ours trundle and grumble. All in all, setting up a good team via cabinet formation is only half the job done- the real and more important half is to be able to make the team perform upto its potential. That is where Manmohan - Sonia- Rahul will be truly tested .