Is VD Satheesan cabinet facing a 'collective responsibility' crisis?
Kerala’s V.D. Satheesan government appears to be encountering one challenge after another since coming to power in May. Six months into office with the promise of undoing the previous Left Front regime’s ‘misgovernance’, critics find the new dispensation short on ministerial accountability, transparency and collective cabinet responsibility.
Very early into his stint, Satheesan, who overcame intense competition within the Congress to become chief minister, has earned more brickbats than praise. His cabinet colleagues and party leaders have, on occasions, strongly differed with him over what they say is his unilateral decision-making and the concentration of powers by the chief minister’s office (CMO).
According to former Kerala chief secretary Jiji Thomson, every coalition government must navigate internal differences, and that debate and dissent are essential to democratic governance. The test of leadership lies in ensuring these differences are resolved within institutional forums. But when ministers and coalition leaders repeatedly express dissatisfaction in public, the credibility of collective responsibility begins to erode, he said.
The most-recent episode of cabinet disunity has been the government’s decision to pick a private firm for a power purchase deal. Power minister and state Congress chief Sunny Joseph challenged the chief minister on this. “I came to know about the decision from the media The chief minister never consulted me,” Joseph told the media.
Around the same time, senior Congress MP Adoor Prakash, who is also convenor of the ruling United Democratic Government (UDF), sarcastically remarked that “evidence of collective responsibility [in the government] is trickling out into the open”.
Prakash is a Congress veteran and seasoned strategist. He has been representing the Attingal Lok Sabha constituency since 2019. Last month, he had questioned Satheesan’s move to appoint Dr M.K. Muneer, a leader of UDF constituent Indian Union Muslim League, as chairman of the Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission and ally Forward Bloc’s general secretary G. Devarajan as State Special Representative of Kerala in New Delhi. Adoor claimed the UDF had not been consulted on the choices.
Thomson said it’s early days for the government so there is still “ample time for course correction”. “A stronger system of cabinet consultations, regular UDF coordination meetings and greater transparency in decision-making could help restore public confidence in the government's internal cohesion mechanism,” said Thomson.
“The real issue may not be whether the bureaucracy is challenging the government but whether the government is exercising its political authority with sufficient clarity and cohesion. A confident cabinet—united in purpose and consistent in communication—rarely faces challenges to its authority from the administrative apparatus. But where ambiguity exists, the bureaucracy inevitably acquires greater influence,” Thomson told INDIA TODAY.
Some officials claimed the UDF government had bared signs of lack of clarity. “There is no proper directive from ministers or their offices to our queries. Most of them seem inexperienced in government practices. Some ministers flip-flop on their opinions,” said a bureaucrat, who did not wish to be named.
Another bureaucrat felt “willful omissions and selective choices” were guiding the government. “The government is promoting private interests with a profit motive,” he alleged.
Satheeshan refuted the narrative at play. “We are united and consult senior leaders on major decisions. Our government is more concerned about delivering the best for the people,” the chief minister told the media on November 11 during a briefing on cabinet decisions. Satheeshan also met Joseph the same night to sort out the ‘differences’.
