NEW DELHI: Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda last week chose to keep the sensitive Home portfolio to himself, while reforms protagonist P. Chidambaram was given Finance, Mulayam Yadav Defense and LK, Gujral External Affairs.

Deve Gowda, who has also retained Agriculture, Personnel, Science and Technology and Atomic Energy, entrusted water resources to seasoned Janata Dal leader Gujral, as an additional charge. The move assumes significance in the context of the Cauvery waters dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kamataka.

The portfolios were announced by Rashtrapati Bhawan in a late night communiqué on the advice of the Prime Minister. Janata Dal’s Ram Vilas Paswa has been given the Railway Ministry in addition to Parliamentary Affairs, a crucial task in a Coalition government.

Murasoli Maran has been entrusted with Industry, his DMK colleague Tindivanam G. Venkitaraman gets Surface transport. Chidambaram has also been given additional charge of Law, Justice and Company Affairs.

Bihar Janata Dal leader Devendra Prasad Yadav has been given Food, Civil Supplies. Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution with additional charge of the important Commerce Ministry.

Kamataka Janata Dal president C_M. Ibrahim gets Civil Aviation and Tourism along with high-profile Information and Broadcasting Ministry as additional responsibility,

Surprise entrant Balwant Singh Ramoowalia has been given charge of Welfare and Labor. M. Arunachalam gets back to his old ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment in an elevated capacity as a Cabinet minister.

Junata Dal leader S.R. Bommai has been given Human Resources Development and Ministry of Coal as additional charge while Yerrun Naidu of the Telugu Desam gets Rural Arcs and Employment.

Essentially, only six states have found representation in the Deve Gowdaled 13pany United Front coalition government that was swom in by President Shanker Dayal Sharma in the afternoon last week.

Apart from Prime Minister Deve Gowda, almost half the 20member Council of Ministers were from the South, While Gowda’s home state of Kamataka has two ministers, Tamil ‘Nadu is represented by four two from the Tamil Maanila Congress and two. from the DMK, Andhra Pradesh has three, Bihar seven, Uttar Pradesh three ‘and Punjab one. Erred Unlike in the past, view selection of the Cabinet has not been left to the each regional party boss. The TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu.

The DMK’s M: Karunanidhi, the samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Yadav had the freedom to select his nominees. Even in the Janata Dal, Deve Gowda made the selections for Karnataka, but it was party president Laloo Yadav who decided the representatives from Bihar.

The day began amid uncertainty and the composition of the Cabinet was undecided till the eleventh hour because of differences within the JD. After deliberations throughout the night, the final list of 20 ministers was ready only by 11 am by which time frantic calls were being put through Lo those who had made it.

The Janata Dal ended up with nine ministers, the SP three, the TMC two, the DMK two and the TDP three. The 20th minister is Punjab’s Balwant Singh Ramoowalia. A member of the Minorities Commission, Ramoowalia’s induction was the surprise of the day. Like Gowda, he is also not a member of cither House of Parliament. Representing the Samajwadi Party is Mulayam Singh Yadav with Cabinet rank and Beni Prasad Verma and Salim Sherwani, both ministers of state, There are two representatives each from the DMK, reluctant partners Murasoli Maran and T.G Venkitaraman, while the Tamil Maanila Congress is represented by P. Chidambaram and M. Arunachalam, Andhra Pradesh is represented by the three TDP members, one with Cabinet rank, K. Yerrannaidu.

With the Left Front choosing to stay out of the coalition government, West Bengal and Kerulaare unrepresented. Among the other states that have been left out are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gurjarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Orissa and Northeastern states. If the AGP decides to join the Cabinet, Assam will automatically be represented ‘The half-hour swearing in Ceremony at the Ashoka Hall was attended, among others, by four former Prime Ministers Atal Behari Vajpayce, PV. Narasimha Rao, V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar. More than a dozen chief ministers, including Jyoti Basu of West Bengal, Chandra Babu Naidu. Of Andhra Pradesh and E.K, Nayanar of Kerala, added a federal Never to the ceremony. After the swearing in, Gowda said he was confident that his government would last its full five year term and asserted that the mandate was not for any single party but for a multiparty coalition. The new government will seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on June 10. “Wait and see, 1 can prove how this government can survive for five years,” Gowda told newsmen. Meanwhile, Congress President Rao made it clear last week that there was no question of his party joining the UF coalition at any stage.

Rao’s flat “no” set at rest all speculation that a section of Rao loyalists were goading him to consider joining the government at appropriate silage.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 5, 1996