Cabinet expansion: Is Narendra Modi government going the UPA way?

New Delhi: With the induction of 21 more new faces, the ministerial strength of the Modi government has gone up to 66, which is just 12 less than the Manmohan Singh’s UPA government.

It seems now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much touted “minimum government and maximum governance” plank has taken a back seat for now, as the experience in the last five months has forced a re-think.

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Apologists, however, claim that the number of ministers in the Modi government is still less than that of those headed by Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee before him. Sources in the BJP noted that it was a wrong interpretation to equate Mr Modi’s “minimum government and maximum governance” with that of number of ministers in his team. “Rather, by government Mr Modi meant less interference and by governance he meant more delivery. You need to have people to deal humongous task of governance in a country as big as India with more than 125 crore population,” they said.

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Many also believe that Mr Modi is a man in “hurry” and wants to speed up the functioning in the government. As several of his ministers, already under duress to deliver as quickly as possible, have multiple portfolios and were finding it to concentrate on their jobs, a sense of prevailing in the government that it was not possible to function properly with a lean council of ministers of just 45.

Secondly, there were political compulsions too to accommodate regional and caste aspirations, particularly when several of the crucial states are lined up for Assembly elections in next two years. “Accordingly due considerations were needed to be given to those factors too,” sources in the BJP said.

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Meanwhile, Mr Modi will chair the first meeting of the expanded Cabinet, which will be followed by a meeting of council of ministers on Monday evening.