Cabinet Expansion, A Gaseous Business

A Cabinet reshuffle is like spring cleaning. A Cabinet expansion is, by expanding the simile, adding items to the attic. Of course, government is no attic, the same way summer is no spring. But with expansion comes the temptation not to weed out, well, the weeds. With Parliament returning to business later this month, it’s too late for us to conduct an honest-to-god minister-by-minister report card exercise. In any case, we live in politically correct times when report cards, whether for schoolchildren or for politicians, are seen as being too ‘pressurising’ for their well-being and performance. So, in the spirit of positivity that’s such a buzzword these days, we restrict ourselves to polite curiosity.

‘Minimum government, maximum governance’ has a bumper sticker quality. This is largely because it is, indeed, a bumper sticker slogan. So, expansion, per se, is quite all right, especially when the country needs more hands (read: better oaring) on the deck. As long as the whole thing doesn’t become a matter of quid pro quo — there is noise about a former Assam CM having made a ‘sacrifice’ in the state elections this May being given his just deserts via the dessert of a Cabinet berth — we, looking in from the cheap seats, are happy. After all, GoI, like gases, is also covered by Boyle’s law: with expansion comes reduction in pressure.