All The Prime Minister's Men

The irrepressible Ram Jethmalani led all the way. The maverick law minister held forth about his plan to try former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao in the hawala and St Kitts cases—not to talk of Bofors—even without waiting for a collective party decision. Jethmalani who still heads the Pavitra Hindustan Kazhagam—an attempted political outfit—also boasted that as long as he is there there would be no move to buy over MPs to save the Vajpayee Government. In fact, the BJP is apprehensive that Jethmalani could be as disastrous for a government as a, say, Subramanian Swamy.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj seemed to be in a tearing hurry to grant autonomy to Akashvani and Doordarshan, little realising that the bill needs parliamentary approval and its passage is not possible without an all-party support. And that there will be no parliamentary business before the Government seeks a vote of confidence.

Vajpayee picked his Cabinet carefully —trying to balance regional, caste as well as religion factors. Sikander Bakht, the sole Muslim representative, was the first to be called for the swearing-in after the Prime Minister. Senior leaders Suraj Bhan and Karia Munda represent the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe aspirations. It has a pro-reforms liberal like Jaswant Singh looking after the Ministry of Finance. Vajpayee, however, could not include anyone from Gujarat because of the persistent infighting in the state party.

Also, though the Prime Minister may have tried to give representation to the minorities, SCs and STs, his Cabinet has more than 50 per cent Brahmins—giving an impression that the backward classes have still not been fully assimilated into the party. New Home Minister Murli Manohar Joshi's assertion that the Government was committed to protect minorities came on the day he assumed office, and, of course, not without reason.

Joshi, unlike Vajpayee, has the image of a die-hard Vishwa Hindu Parishad supporter, a votary of an uncompromising 'Hindu agenda'. And his task is the most difficult—to justify the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 without displeasing Vajpayee.