In the indecisive climate that prevails in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet, it is raining MoSs. With so many of them holding multiple charges and portfolios being shuffled at whim, and at the last minute, sources in the Rastrapathi Bhavan said that the President had signed on files reallocating MosS portfolios four times since the last reshuffle on October 28, 2012. Two were, in fact, changed on the same day of the cabinet reshuffle.
Two days later, on October 30, the Prime Minister advised the reallocation of portfolios of three MoS—Milind Deora, who was MoS in charge of Communications and Information Technology was given additional charge of Shipping. Lalchand Kataria, who was originally given MoS Defence was shifted to Rural Development. Again on November 2, the Prime Minister advised the President to allocate S Jagathrakshakan, Minister of State, the portfolio of Commerce and Industry instead of New and Renewable Energy. Immediately after Jitendra Singh was allocated the portfolio of the Minister of State with Independent Charge of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports during the reshuffle, he was given the additional portfolio of MoS, Defence, right after. Never before has a MoS with independent charge of a ministry been asked to work as a full-fledged deputy to another minister in an additional ministry. Jitendra is not the only an exception; there are two others in the Manmohan Singh’s cabinet with a similar distinction— Srikant Jana has the independent charge of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and is dependent minister in Chemical and Fertilisers. Pawan Singh Ghatowar who holds independent charge of Development of North-Eastern Region, is also MoS, Parliamentary Affairs under Kamal Nath. And, now, Panabaka Lakshmi, MoS, was controversially shifted from the Textiles Ministry to Petroleum and Natural Gas.
The Sunday Standard