The UPA is sorely missing its troubleshooter-in-chief. Pranab Mukherjee’s absence is quite noticeable in the new cabinet committees and groups of ministers (GoM) constituted by the prime minister since after the ministerial reshuffle on October 28.

Mukherjee headed as many as a dozen empowered GoMs that can take decisions on behalf of the cabinet. Now there are just five eGoMs, three headed by Antony and two by Chidambaram. In case of GoMs, Chidambaram heads seven, Pawar five and Antony three.

The place of Mukherjee in the political steering of the government in parliament is sought to be filled through urban development minister Kamal Nath, the lone nine-term Lok Sabha veteran, who was reported to have been personally requested by the prime minister to take over the additional charge of the parliamentary affairs ministry in these difficult times for the government.

New pecking order

The list of the cabinet committees posted on the cabinet secretariat website on November 6 and of the GoMs a day later shows defence minister AK Antony as No 2 after the PM, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar as No 3 and finance minister P Chidambaram as No 4.
Antony's position is also clear from the fact that he is the only minister heading two cabinet committees on parliamentary affairs and accommodation while the other eight are headed by the PM.

Kamal blooms

The PM was earlier not happy with his work as he was first shunted out from the commerce and industries ministry and then from the surface transport ministry, but he agreed to Sonia Gandhi's advice that he was an ideal replacement for Mukherjee thanks to his networking skills and friends cutting across the party lines.

Kamal Nath has been also made a member of the cabinet committee on political affairs (CCPA) that the PM heads. His predecessor Pawan Bansal was not a member of the CCPA. Sources in the Congress say "limited strategic vision" of the new leader of Lok Sabha, Sushil Kumar Shinde, in place of Mukherjee forced the need to have "experienced leaders" in the mainstream political management in parliament.

Political management

Those with political management skills like external affairs minister Salman Khurshid and communications minister Kapil Sibal find place in the CCPA which also has Antony, Chidambaram and Shinde as its members from the Congress, besides the allies represented by Pawar, renewable energy minister Farooq Abdullah, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh and chemicals minister MK Alagiri.

Khurshid, who now heads one of the top four ministries, is also part of the topmost government body, the cabinet committee on security (CCS), besides retaining his position in the GoM on media, though his predecessor in the external affairs ministry, SM Krishna, had no such assignment.

Congress circles were a bit surprised that health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is another party veteran with the networking qualities, finds no place in the cabinet committees on political affairs or parliamentary affairs.

Also surprising was science and technology minister S Jaipal Reddy finding place in two critical cabinet committees - on economic affairs and infrastructure, despite the growing perception that he was not in tune with the PM's economic vision, a reason perhaps for his shunting out from the high-profile petroleum ministry.

Youngsters on the rise

An interesting change in the new ministerial order is the entry of the young ministers in some of the key GoMs. Minister of state for power (independent charge) Jyotiraditya Scindia is in five GoMs, while information & broadcasting minister Manish Tewari, housing and poverty alleviation minister Ajay Maken and corporate affairs minister Sachin Pilot have also been accommodated in a few.