Gandhi pledges clean Govt

Press, 2 January 1985, Page 6

Gandhi pledges clean Govt

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi The new Cabinet of the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, has held its first meeting, promising a clean, loyal, and efficient administration. Mr Gandhi dropped six Ministers and 10 Ministers of State in his new 39member Council of Ministers with an inner Cabinet of 14, who were sworn in on Monday night at the Presidential Palace. The ceremony was broadcast live on nation-wide television. The new Cabinet is dominated by close aides and party faithful. Mr Gandhi holds 14 Ministries until’ the council is further expanded. The biggest surprise was the sacking of Pranab Mu-

kherjee, a successful Finance Minister since 1981 and a close adviser to Indira Gandhi. He has been replaced by Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who resigned as Commerce Minister four months ago to reorganise the governing Congress (I) Party in the key state of Uttar Pradesh. The state returned 83 out of 85 Congress candidates. Election officials said Congress had won 400 out of the 508 seats at stake in the Lower House of Parliament. The officials said that Congress was well ahead in counting for the last seat still to be announced. Mr Gandhi told reporters his Ministers would be closely watched. “The emphasis will be on cleanli-

ness, loyalty and efficiency. If people do not come up to the mark, they will be held accountable,” he said. He appointed no deputy Ministers, of which there were 11 in the outgoing Administration, because they were never given any work. He promised a separation of Government from the Congress Party, which he said would have to be reorganised because some of its general secretaries had joined the Council of Ministers. Business reaction to the new Cabinet was favourable. D. H. Pai Panandiker, secretary-general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said he was very

hopeful about the new Government. “Gandhi has such a big majority he can implement the bold policies he has proposed. He wants efficiency, competitiveness, and results — the goals of business and industry,” he said. Only about 10 per cent of the candidates fielded by India’s six national Opposition parties managed to avoid the electoral streamroller of Mr Gandhi’s Congress (I) Party. Agence France-Presse reports that the big losers were three Right-wing parties: the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Party, and Janata.

Together they fielded only 15 winners out of 591 candidates. The Hindu-dominated 8.J.P., which controlled 16 seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha, or Lower House of Parliament, contested 226 seats in the election but won a mere two. About 110 sitting members of Parliament who ran in the elections were unseated, a Press Trust of India breakdown showed. They included 23 Congress (I) members and the rest belonged to Opposition parties. Seven more seats in constituencies where the vote was delayed for various reasons will be the subjects of polls on January 28.