Union Cabinet and Assam

— Amal Kumar Das The formation of the recent Cabinet under Dr. Manmohan Singh was a matter of intense speculation in Assam. The same was not for the size of the cabinet or its durability, but for the probable berths from the hopefuls of Assam. One reason that made the aspirants very optimistic was the number of seats the Congress scored in the election. The number, although not extraordinary, rather two seats less than the previous parliamentary election, Congress won 7 seats, half the total 14 seats, a performance higher than the party’s all India tally of 205 out of 543. With BPF’s single seat added to it, the score crosses the half mark. This was exactly the reason why the imagination ran so high.

There are other factors that reinforce the higher expectation. The Union Council of Ministers constituted after first general election comprised 35 ministers with-a mix of 15 cabinet, 6 with cabinet rank but not as cabinet ministers, (like MOS with independent charge) and 14 deputy ministers. Over the years, the size of the cabinet has almost trebled and with the present ministry it stands at 79.

The 91st Constitution Amendment Act of 2003, stipulated the strength of the Council of Ministers to 15% of the total member of Lok Sabha. In that reckoning, the Council of Ministers cannot cross the number of 81.

But even when the council of ministers was small, Surendra Nath Buragohain and subsequently Bijoy Chandra Bhagawati were allotted berths as deputy ministers. It was F Ali Ahmed who was chosen as first cabinet minister in the sixties in Indira Gandhi Cabinet. The 1971 parliamentary election doubled the number of cabinet minister from Assam with induction of Moinul Haque Choudhury. Subsequently Dev Kanta Barooah too joined the council as cabinet minister. The trend continued and even with regime change, Dinesh Goswami from AGP in the VP Singh cabinet, Birendra Prasad Baishya also from AGP in Deve Gowda cabinet occupied cabinet berths. Others who got ministerial berths were Bipinpal Das, Bedabrata Barua and our present Chief Minister Tarun Ch Gogoi too – all as MOS during Congress rule. The geographical position as a border state, the foreigners problem, chronic nature of fury of flood and erosion, confronting upsurge of ethnic groups, activities of terrorist outfits, sponsoring of fundamentalism by neighbouring countries justify enhanced and better representation in the cabinet from the state and the region too. Atal Behari Vajpayee Cabinet, provided ministerial berths to Kabindra Purkayastha and Bijoya Chakroborty of Assam besides accommodating one each from Arunachal and Manipur. Over the years, it has become an established practice that by and large Assam is represented in the Union Council of Ministers by a cabinet and a state minister, the recent instance being Santosh Mohan Dev and Bijoy Krishna Handique in the outgoing Dr. Manmohan Singh cabinet.

It is now self explanatory that there is no plausible ground in reducing the number of .ministers from the state, rather the political, geographical, economic realities emphasise enhancement of the representation. It is this behavioural pattern that has caused heart burn among the people of the state more so when Dr Manmohan Singh represents Assam and he has the major say in structuring the cabinet.

And why do we demand a bigger representation in the corridor of policy makers? The power that be in Delhi cannot be expected to be always favourably disposed to the interests of Assam. In the centre of power, it is he whose voice is loud and assertive that can make his claim acceptable. It needs strong presence of political leadership coupled with backup from bureaucrats. In both the cases, Assam’s presence is fragile. The highest number of secretaries in the central secretariat Assam had were Bhaskar Barua as secretary in the Ministry of Food & Agriculture and Madan Prasad Bezboruah in the Ministry of Tourism during the BJP government. Fortunately, recently a son of Assam, Harishankar Brahma has taken over the charge of Secretary, Ministry of Energy. Getting a decision cleared politically at ministerial level is only one aspect, the process only sets in motion and expedited by bureaucracy. Even in the cabinet, joint efforts are extremely necessary to get things done, when it is numerical strength that matters most. Assam has a feeling, Delhi is always at a hearing distance of the demands of Assam expressed through agitation ana media. It is a self defeating illusion. We don’t even substantial presence in Delhi. But see what happened to West Bengal and what their assertive presence achieved. The exclusion of Saurav Ganguli from the Indian cricket team united the Bengal lobby in such a way that from Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharya to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, ministers Pranab Mukherjee to Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi forced Sharad Pawar to make conciliatory postures to powerful Bengali lobby. After Hem Baruah and Dinesh Goswami, we lost much of our shine in Parliament. MPs both from the ruling and the Opposition could not bring back the lost glory of Hem Barua and Dinesh Goswami. For the Chief Minister, no matter who he is – Hiteswar Saikia, Prafulla Mahanta, Tarun Gogoi, it becomes a herculean task for him to prevail in Delhi. Presence of ministers in the Union Cabinet emboldens the efforts of the state.

Our demand to have more berths in the central Cabinet stands exactly on those premises. And whose names took the round? They were Paban Singh Ghatowar, representing the sensitive Tea Tribe community and who was also earlier MOS, Bhubaneswar Kalita, a three time MP, once MLA and also minister in the state cabinet and president of APCC. S Bwiswmuthiary three time MP and a very vocal leader of the ethnic Bodo community. Two more names from the ruling party – Biren Singh Ingti and Ismail Hussain also appeared. But possibly the induction of two MPs of ST community from neighbouring Meghalaya downplayed the claim of Biren Singh Ingti and SK Bwiswmuthiary. Ismail Hussain, the first timer in the parliament was possibly brought to frustrate Badaruddin Ajmal of AUDF.

In our opinion, in the present context, the leadership of the ruling party in the formation of the cabinet was not adequately responsive to the expectations on another count also. During the Congress dispensation, all ministers in the centre were from upper Assam and Barak Valley. Dinesh Goswami got cabinet berth in VP Singh Ministry and Birendra Prasad Baishya in Deva Gowda cabinet and at no time, what is conspicuous, the present ruling party has not made any space for any caste Hindu representative in the cabinet except from Barak Valley. ASSAM TRIBUNE