Aditya Sinha: Team Modi's new cheerleaders

It is heartening to see that Modi and Shah had the smarts to promote Nirmala Sitharaman to Defence Minister File picAFPYou might remember when as Mumbais police commissioner in 2013 Satyapal Singh said this Most suicides are committed by those who have studied in the English medium I have never heard of or seen a Sanskritmedium educated person committing suicide Today he is Union minister of state for education Educated or not one can predict his tenure will be marked by footinmouth disease Such is the dearth of talent in the ruling BJP that even with 340 Members of Parliament Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to choose this excop Possibly Singhs preference for Sanskrit over English makes for an ideal candidate in the Sangh parivar Im inclined to think however that anyone can be an ideal candidate if they just mouth the usual lines about cultural nationalism even if they dont personally believe itLike the new tourism minister KJ Alphonse who just 11 years ago left government service to become an assemblyman in Kerala aligned to the Communist Party of India Marxist Is he ideal or does he just sound ideal In the 90s Alphonse was known in middleclass Delhi as the demolition man slumdwellers called him something else Still he was bold as far as bureaucrats go so when AB Vajpayee in 1998 made Ram Jethmalani his urban development minister Jethmalani chose Alphonse as his Man Friday I met Alphonse and instead of giving me a story he turned the tables by asking me for ideas on improving housing in India Nearly 20 years later I still have zero ideas In 2015 Alphonse heckled former spy chief AS Dulat and I after a discussion of our book Kashmir The Vajpayee Years at a Delhi literary festival Was it correct for Dulat he rhetorically asked to have written a book So on the whole it is uncertain whether Alphonse will make for a creative tourism minister but he will no doubt be a fearless cheerleader for Modis New IndiaThe brightest former officials inducted into the Council of Ministers is Hardeep Singh Puri who almost became foreign secretary under exPM Manmohan Singh but lost out to Congress president Sonia Gandhis choice Sujata Singh daughter of family loyalist and former IB chief TV Rajeshwar Puri joined the BJP hoping to become National Security Advisor NSA but lost out to Ajit Doval He was not overjoyed Ironically both Doval and Puri were considered to be former deputy PM LK Advanis blueeyed boys as high commissioner in London Puri aided Advani on a delicate family matter That sums up Puri always someones blueeyed boy be it the late JN Dixit or Advani or even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Though hes an independent minister he might think himself worthy of meatier portfolios than urban affairsNo matter how smart long service conditions bureaucrats to be operators They are hardwired to implement someone elses ideas Even former Home Secretary RK Singh now with independent charge of the power ministry a responsibility previously Piyush Goels is ultimately just a bureaucrat despite all the breathless talk of his exploits of having arrested Advani in 1990 That he is a minister even after lashing out at the party in 2014 he even criticised External Affairs Minister EAM Sushma Swaraj for her links to fugitive Lalit Modi should be of no surprise It simply means RK Singh was confident enough to do so having held the confidence of someone powerful And the only two people who matter in India are Modi and BJP chief Amit ShahThere is a silver lining in this ministry expansion it is heartening to see that Modi and Shah had the smarts to promote Nirmala Sitharaman to Defence Minister This means that she joins the governments core group the Cabinet Committee on Security It comprises Modi Jaitley Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh The only other possible entrant to this exclusive group could have been Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari but he isnt wanted there He is his own man and besides hes happy building roads and bridges and ports and now managing water resources Sitharamans promotion to the CCS means that a leadership that does not easily trust its own partymen has trust in this hardworking nononsense womanBut what of all those parliamentarians who do the rough and tumble of politics toiling in the sun to meet constituents address grievances and solicit votes You could argue that they didnt win BJP the largest parliamentary majority since Rajiv Gandhis in 1984 that it was all courtesy of Modis personal popularity Possibly And possibly it wont hurt to shortcircuit these MPs the way the media is shortcircuited in favour of direct contact with the people After all they wont be criticised that the economy is in freefall the excentral banker disowns demonetisation and that there is no sight of acche din on the horizonAditya Sinhas crime novel The CEO Who Lost His Head is available now He tweets autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom