In fact, if the 97th Constitution Amendment Bill succeeds, it would legitimise Vajpayee’s jumbo cabinet. Because in the proposed Constitution Amendment Bill, the size of the Council of Ministers is sought to be restricted to 10 per cent of Parliament. The word ‘Parliament’ includes both the Lok Sabha (LS) and the Rajya Sabha (RS). Presently, the strength of both the Houses is 776. Thus, 10 per cent of this comes to 77. The Council of Ministers that Prime Minister Vajpayee heads at present has a strength of 76 members. So, if the 97th Constitution Amendment Bill gets enacted then there would still be a berth for one more minister. The supporters of the Prime Minister justify the present big-sized Council of Ministers on the basis that Vajpayee has to accommodate one or two members of all the constituents of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance). It is a hollow argument for the simple reason that he could have cut down on the ministers belonging to his own party, the BJP. Of course, Vajpayee would have done so at his own peril. The reason: his own party is a conglomeration of diverse groups like the RSS, the Bajrang Dal, the VHP and so on. All of them had to be accommodated if Vajpayee was to stay on top.

Critics say that the 97th Constitution Amendment Bill has another undeclared motive. It is, in fact, a move to keep all the NDA partners roped together in the next general elections due in another 10 months or so. The fact that a prime minister can have a council of ministers up to 77, if the above Bill gets adopted, is an indirect assurance to all the constituents of the NDA of getting a ministerial berth should they make it to the next parliament. As such, Vajpayee deserves a pat on the back for making such a clever move.

It goes without saying that the Prime Minister has set a trend of big-sized cabinets that he now wants to legalise. But this is not something which the country can afford. Over five decades ago, the combined strength of LS and RS Members of Parliament was 640. But the Council of Ministers headed by the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, numbered only 32. Even under Prime Minister I. K. Gujral, this strength was restricted to 39. Again, in the three-tier United Front ministry, the Council of Ministers comprised a mere 44. Even Vajpayee, during his 1998–99 tenure had only 39 ministers. As such, one wonders why Vajpayee had to double the strength four years ago. Certainly this has not happened due to sudden increase in the load of work.

It would be naive to assume that the Prime Minister is not aware of the economic situation of the country. The ministers are supposed to oversee the working of various departments of the government and not run them. The latter is done by the respective secretaries of each department. As such, one minister assisted by two junior ministers can look after a conglomeration of ministries closely related to each other. For instance, where is the need to have separate ministers for petroleum, natural gas and coal. All these three ministries can be clubbed under one minister for energy. If an exercise like this is undertaken, the size of Vajpayee’s cabinet would shrink to 35 or so.

The streamlining of the cabinet by downsizing it as well as overhauling its functioning can help cut government expenditure. This one move alone would result in saving the tax payer’s money running into hundreds of crores of rupees annually.

If there is one area in which the Vajpayee government has failed, it is in respect of cutting down unnecessary expenditure at every level.