He hasn’t even won a municipal election, Natwar Singh said of the prime minister, who’s a Rajya Sabha member. Actually, the cabinet that Natwar belonged to has a profusion of senior ministers who haven’t won a “popular vote”: Ten of them, excluding the PM, in a 34-member cabinet. The Congress contributes 8 of these 10. Some of these 8 Congress ministers have had occasion to interrogate the prime minister’s political credentials as well, although in a manner and in forums much more discreet than those chosen by Natwar, who had entered the cabinet as a Rajya Sabha MP himself. Clearly, the ex-foreign minister’s barb on “unelected” ministers has implications beyond what he intended.

Arjun Singh
Human Resource Development

Shivraj Patil
Home

H R Bharadwaj
Law & Justice

Vayalar Ravi
Overseas Indian Affairs

Ambika Soni
Tourism & Culture

Saifuddin Soz
Water Resources

Murli Deora
Petroleum

Sushil Kr Shinde
Power

Non-Congress cabinet ministers who are not Lok Sabha MPs are Prem Chand Gupta, Company Affairs, RJD and Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, Health & Family Welfare, pmk