The Best Indian Government Ever!

The new council of ministers Manmohan Singh inducted into his government is definitely the best team I have seen in my life time on the helm of Indian politics. He has picked the best men and women for the job given the choices he has to make.

The Duo of SM Krishna and Shashi Tharoor in Foreign Ministry signals a drastic positive change in India's relationship with our immediate neighbor ( Pakistan and resolution of Kashmir Issue) and even better relationship with larger powers is coming soon. They are indeed the cream of the crop and no reason to expect anything less from them.

Chidambaram back in Home Ministry is very reassuring. The most able minister in the cabinet has given the most difficult task! He is smart, visionary, good communicator, mature, tactical and an executioner. A man like him is the need of the hour to contain and eradicate the naxal , terrorist, communal and northeast issues hurting India for a while. His priorities should be on strengthening the internal security institutions and enforcement of law.

AK Antony as Defense minister is telling me that Congress has no plans to go to war with any country for the next 5 years! His personality is not what one would expect from a Defense Minister aka Offense Minister. At least he will live up to the name of his ministry! A truly defense minister! He is not the minister to project the military strength of India but rest assured he will do his best to prevent corruption in Defense spend. This is indeed great for our defense forces long term.

Pranab as Finance minister seemed like a mediocre pick to me given his baggage from old license raj era. But given allocation of other important ministries to other able persons (Chidambaram and Kamal Nath), I think the best position to accommodate a senior congress man like him was indeed Finance. Especially, since MMS can strongly influence this ministry, if warranted. I was hoping Sonia will create a deputy PM post for him and keep him out of finance but it is little unrealistic to expect a deputy PM post in Congress for him while Rahul is supposedly being groomed for the PM post.

Snatching up the infrastructure ministry from DMK and handing it over to Kamal Nath tells me MMS has big plans for modernizing India’s infrastructure. Really glad to see Kamal Nath in this post. A China style infrastructure face up is on Indian horizon!

Kabil Sibal as Human Resource Development minister and Ghulam Nabi Azad as Health minister show UPA is very much committed to to social sector development. Both had a combination of vision and execution to do great things in these ministries.

I am also very optimistic about having Veerappa Moily as Law minister. His previous experience as the chairman of Administrative Reform Commission will make him a unique law minister. If he was serious about the recommendation that he made under ARC and other institutional strengthen initiative that he proposed, law ministry gives him a platform to implement those proposal.

Finally, I am glad to see young people like junior Scinda , Sagma and Pilot (all sounded extremely smart and sharp on TV and also well educated despite their family background that could have spoiled them) was inducted to the government. I would like to see them as Cabinet ministers or as PMs one day!

-Jai Ho MMS