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Inept Allies Bog Down UPA Govt, Non- Performers Leave Cong Red- Faced But PM Can't Do Much About It

By ugesh sarkar, Section Top Stories
Posted on Sat Jan 23, 2010 at 02:03:48 AM EST

IT'S THE " alliance" in the UPA that is putting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a spot in his second term.

He is struggling with the burden of five inept Union ministers belonging to the Congress's alliance partners.

And there is precious little he can do because severing ties with them would be akin to snapping the coalition government's lifeline.

Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, DMK leaders A. Raja and M. K. Alagiri and NCP leader Praful Patel form the ` infamous five'. Key ministries such as food, agriculture, civil supplies and consumer affairs ( Pawar), railways ( Mamata), telecom ( Raja), chemicals and fertilisers ( Alagiri) and civil aviation ( Patel) have lost sheen because of their abysmal performance.
And the biggest " non- performing asset" in the UPA could be Pawar.

He made the government see red not only with his inability to control rising prices of essential commodities but also with his penchant for periodic forecasts. He has often ` predicted' rise in the prices of rice, sugar and milk products in the recent past, allegedly helping hoarders to stock up on food products.

A Mumbai- based Pawar watcher and financial consultant alleged that the profit of big sugar companies have increased up to 1,000 times in the past six months. Share prices of these firms have registered a 300- per cent increase.

But the consumers and farmers remain the worst hit.

The analyst said: " Despite the bumper production of wheat, he ( Pawar) created artificial shortage." During portfolio allocation, Pawar had bargained hard and retained the agriculture ministry in UPA II. He also forced the Congress brass to club food, civil supplies and consumer affairs with the agriculture ministry to derive " maximum benefit". Another analyst said Pawar was able to influence a number of cooperatives, including those of sugar and milk, to his advantage and " profit" by clubbing all the four departments.

Mamata, too, has been labelled a " non- performer" eight months into the railway ministry. The Congress is reportedly deeply concerned about Mamata's lack of interest and initiative in the ministry which she took over from Lalu Prasad. A case in point: of the 15 cabinet meet ings held recently, Mamata skipped nine. She is a ghost figure in Rail Bhawan and often remains holed up in Kolkata.

Source: Mail Today Inept Allies Bog Down UPA Govt, Non- Performers Leave Cong Red- Faced But PM Can't Do Much About It

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" Files are piling up. Officers are forced to fly down to Kolkata every time they wish to get files cleared. Her attitude has made monitoring various projects difficult. We get the feeling that she is not interested in the job in Delhi," a ministry official said.

A Rail Bhawan official said: " The Mamata menace may be short- lived. She is eyeing the chief minister's post in Bengal, where polls are due early next year." Both the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are said to be concerned about the below- par performance of these ministers, but their hands are tied because of the compulsions of coalition politics.

How else can one explain the continuing reign of Alagiri and Raja, both from the DMK? According to a party source, the telecom ministry has become a " den of corruption" with a tainted Raja -- suspected to be involved in the 2G spectrum scam -- at the helm.

Alagiri, who refuses to speak a word of English or Hindi, is " too inefficient to handle the ministry", the source added.

Patel has taken many questionable decisions, allegedly favouring private airlines. His biggest blunder, many said, was the decision to merge Indian Airlines and Air India.

A senior Congress leader said: " The party is concerned about the drag effect of the allies. While one set of allies deliberately wants to sabotage the Congress's image, the other has a myopic priority which is limited to the lust for money." Another leader said the allies had no national vision but were pursuing individual and parochial agendas. " This has marred the government's image," he added.

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