Cabinet overhaul mantra: Perform or perish

Every cabinet rejig has two elements – administrative and political. With more representations to most states and especially to the underprivileged castes, the political equations are quite obvious. However, the more prominent signal that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent through the sweeping change in his team on Wednesday was that his move was a response to performance. The biggest indication of this was the removal of health minister Harsh Vardhan, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar, all of whom were making headlines for the wrong reasons and delivering a rather undesirable impression of India and his government to the world. A total of 12 ministers were dropped.

One of the most significant features of the cabinet expansion – from 53 to 77 members – was the induction of new faces who were new to administration. The seeking of new talent implies a quest for better governance. Despite the expansion in size, the average age of the team has gone down from 60 years to 58. There were several cabinet ministers who were yet to reach the age of 50. There were quite a few first-time MPs. The youngest member in the cabinet was only 35. Seven members were promoted for their performance.

Governance was the platform on which Modi had won the mandate of the people. Wednesday’s move was a fitting response to the challenges he was facing on that front. One of the best ways to serve the people is to adopt a policy of zero tolerance of non-performance.

Rejig or reshuffle, course correction, or revamp – irrespective of the semantics, Wednesday’s overhaul of the cabinet packed a lot of drama and surprises that kept the analysts busy. However, the inescapable mantra was to perform or perish. This is the appropriate message that the prime minister could have delivered in the trying times the nation is passing through.