Indian Cabinet reshuffle sees few surprises
Source: Agencies |
January 20, 2011, Thursday
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INDIAN Prime Minister Manmohan Singh only made slight changes to his cabinet yesterday, stepping back from a major reshuffle that would have revamped the image of a government hit by graft scandals and year-high food inflation.
Major portfolios like finance, defense, home and foreign affairs and environment were unchanged in the first cabinet reshuffle of Singh's second term.
Many of the changes were seen as relating to poor performance by certain ministers, rather than efforts to refresh the government's image as it heads to key state elections that threaten to weaken the troubled ruling coalition.
"The big picture from this is that there is only a bit of shuffling around here and there, but no major expectations have been met - no young blood injected, no corruption-tainted names dropped," said D.H. Pai Panandiker, head of private think-tank RPG Foundation.
Kamal Nath, the powerful roads minister in charge with boosting India's creaking infrastructure, was moved to another ministry after -criticism he moved too slowly in building new roads crucial for the Asian giant's sustainable development.
In one signal that the government wanted to clean up its image, Singh removed his sports minister, M.S. Gill, criticized for overseeing a Commonwealth Games ridden by corruption scandals and embarrassing India around the world.
But business-friendly oil minister Murli Deora was replaced by Jaipal Reddy, a political heavyweight of the ruling Congress party. He was one of those responsible for running the Commonwealth Games in October and had to fend off scathing criticism of the organization, the infrastructure and facilities.
A group of 14 public figures, from industrialists to -former central bank governors, warned this week in an open letter that corruption and bad governance threatened -India's growth, a sign -that scandals were reaching a tipping point for civil society.
Major portfolios like finance, defense, home and foreign affairs and environment were unchanged in the first cabinet reshuffle of Singh's second term.
Many of the changes were seen as relating to poor performance by certain ministers, rather than efforts to refresh the government's image as it heads to key state elections that threaten to weaken the troubled ruling coalition.
"The big picture from this is that there is only a bit of shuffling around here and there, but no major expectations have been met - no young blood injected, no corruption-tainted names dropped," said D.H. Pai Panandiker, head of private think-tank RPG Foundation.
Kamal Nath, the powerful roads minister in charge with boosting India's creaking infrastructure, was moved to another ministry after -criticism he moved too slowly in building new roads crucial for the Asian giant's sustainable development.
In one signal that the government wanted to clean up its image, Singh removed his sports minister, M.S. Gill, criticized for overseeing a Commonwealth Games ridden by corruption scandals and embarrassing India around the world.
But business-friendly oil minister Murli Deora was replaced by Jaipal Reddy, a political heavyweight of the ruling Congress party. He was one of those responsible for running the Commonwealth Games in October and had to fend off scathing criticism of the organization, the infrastructure and facilities.
A group of 14 public figures, from industrialists to -former central bank governors, warned this week in an open letter that corruption and bad governance threatened -India's growth, a sign -that scandals were reaching a tipping point for civil society.
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