NEW DELHI, 24 May 2004 — Stalwarts of the ruling Congress party grabbed key posts yesterday in the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the Finance Ministry in the hands of a free-marketeer, a statement said.
The new finance minister is P. Chidambaram, who when previously holding the post had won the praise of the financial world for lowering import tariffs and taxes.
Harvard-educated Chidambaram, 58, had taken over the Finance Ministry in 1996 from Manmohan, who had ended decades of protectionism.
Manmohan was sworn in Saturday as prime minister after he was backed by the Congress party’s President Sonia Gandhi, who declined to become premier after criticism of her Italian roots.
Sonia’s close aide Natwar Singh was chosen as foreign minister, giving him a key role in the nascent peace process with Pakistan.
Natwar Singh has served as India’s envoy to Pakistan, China, Britain and the United Nations. He drafted the Congress election platform which accused the defeated Hindu fundamentalist government of making India “subordinate” to the United States.
Other Congress veterans who were given key posts included Pranab Mukherjee who was made defense minister. Mukherjee, a 57-year-old writer and journalist who had been billed as a potential prime minister, signed India’s treaty to enter the World Trade Organization in 1984.
Shivraj Patil became home minister, which controls key security forces, and Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Congress chief in troubled Kashmir, was named parliamentary affairs minister.
Arjun Singh, who negotiated in the 1980s on behalf of late Premier Rajiv Gandhi to end a Sikh separatist uprising, was given the Human Resources Development Ministry, which controls education.
Congress has called for a review of school textbooks after accusing the last government of rewriting history to make religious minorities appear like foreigners.
P.M. Sayeed (Congress), who was deputy speaker in the last Lok Sabha will be the power minister. Congress leader Hansraj Bharadwaj gets Law Ministry, while as expected Jaipal Reddy will be the information and broadcasting minister.
Mani Shanker Aiyer will be heading the Petroleum and Panchayati Raj Ministry.
Veteran film actor Sunil Dutt will be the sports and youth affairs minister.
While Laloo Prasad Yadav (RJD) was a little annoyed at his being denied the Home Ministry, he is satisfied at taking over as the railway minister. Ram Vilas Paswan (Lok Janshakti Party), who had eyed the railway portfolio, will be chemical and fertilizers minister.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar gets the Food and Agricultural Ministry, while Praful Patel of the same party gets the Civil Aviation Ministry. Raghuvansh Prasad (RJD) will be the rural development minister. Shibu Soren (JMM) will be the steel minister.
Dayanidhi Maran, son of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Murasoli Maran, will be in the hot seat at the IT and Telecom Ministry. T.R. Baalu, who is also from the DMK, will be the environment minister. PMK’s Ramados will be the health minister.
Manmohan yesterday pledged to work to resolve the insurgency in Kashmir but also to deal firmly with rebels who killed 28 soldiers and their relatives in a land mine attack.
“We will continue to seek a peaceful resolution to outstanding problems (but) there can be no compromise on our solemn resolve to deal with the menace of terrorism with firm determination,” Manmohan said in a statement.
“The persistence of this senseless violence in Kashmir is yet another indication that terrorism continues to pose a grave threat to the nation’s integrity and progress,” he said.
Manmohan, who has been prime minister for less than a day, called the attack on a military bus a “cowardly act of terrorists.”
Kashmir’s largest rebel group Hizbul Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the blast, saying it was in retaliation for the killings of top guerrilla commanders.
Cabinet member Pranab Mukherjee also said the new leadership would maintain dialogue with separatists opened by the defeated Hindu fundamentalist-led government.
“We would like to, on the one hand, strengthen security forces and, on the other hand, we would like to carry on the political dialogue which is necessary to ease tension,” Mukherjee said before the Cabinet meeting.
Kashmir has been in the throes of an insurgency since 1989, which has so far claimed 40,000 lives according to government figures. Separatists put the toll at twice as high.
The first Cabinet meeting chaired by Manmohan yesterday also condemned the attack. The Cabinet said that effective measures would be taken to ensure that aggrieved relatives of the personnel who had lost their lives in the incident are able to live in dignity.
The Cabinet also decided to request President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to convene a brief nine-day session of the Parliament from June 2.
President Kalam will address a joint sitting of Parliament on June 7.
While newly elected members of the Lok Sabha will take oath on June 2 and 3, election of the speaker has been scheduled for June 4, Ram Vilas Paswan said after the Cabinet’s meeting.
Manmohan Singh also set the tone of what would probably be the style of his functioning in the coming days. He held an hour-long meeting with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi regarding the issues to be taken up at the first meeting of the Cabinet.
