The editorial in the latest issue of Organiser titled ‘The new shape of the UPA’ says: “Finally, Indian democracy is of the family, by the family, for the family. It took almost a fortnight for the new Manmohan Singh government to take shape. It is a cabinet of continuity, Congress overconfidence, domineering ambitions and perhaps nothing else. There is no visible newness in the second Manmohan cabinet. Yes, there are 29 new faces with familiar surnames, mostly at the junior level, in the jumbo cabinet. Almost every second Congress MP is a minister. This will certainly satiate the Congressmen’s appetite for power, but what about the leftout allies and hangers-on who hold the government on their unsolicited, unconditional support? The Congress is holding power almost single handed this time. Even the two major allies sharing power - TMC and NCP - are former Congress entities. After the poll outcome, the Congress Party and its bandwagon in the media promised that unfettered by recalcitrant and demanding allies, the new-look Manmohan cabinet will present a picture of clean, purposeful, sensitive and young robustness. What has at last been delivered is old wine in old bottle. Some portfolios have changed hands, not people, some ministries have been bifurcated to accommodate the overarching ambitions of too many aspirants, the Congress high command’s diktat at berth control abandoned mid-way, and yet many states, castes, communities remain unrepresented while some provinces, castes and minorities continued to dominate the scene”.

It adds: “The short shrift given to long-time allies by the Congress is an interesting lesson in political aggression. All the Congress allies who propped up the first Manmohan government in the name of blind anti-BJPism have faced electoral rout and have been ditched by the ruling party. They have paid a heavy price for hanging on to Congress coat-tails. Ditching the allies has nothing to do with presenting a clean image. True. RJD, SP and LJP carry with them a baggage of corrupt, criminal elements who dominated the Manmohan Singh cabinet during his first innings. That is, however, not the real reason for not taking them along this time. If probity in public life was the criteria, many DMK and Congress ministers would not have found a berth in the new cabinet. Expediency and political opportunism played their role here. The Congress has to expand, assert and satisfy its own internal wrangling for power. How will it play out in the long run is the moot point”.

... contd.