Recycling prime ministers

Could we imagine V.P. Singh serving in Deve Gowda’s cabinet or Gowda in I.K. Gujral’s? They belonged to the same party and so there shouldn’t have been a problem had they so willed. Or P.V. Narasimha Rao in Manmohan’s team, or A.B. Vajpayee in Narendra Modi’s?

- R. PRASANNAN

The British, whose cabinet system and practices we have copied, don’t have any qualms about their prime ministers coming back as plain ministers. Look at David Cameron. The guy was prime minister from 2010 till the country voted to Brexit in 2016. One thought he had faded away to write his memoirs or go fishing, but here he is appearing in a lesser avatar in the Rishi Sunak cabinet—as foreign minister whom they call foreign secretary.

Indian leaders are loath to accept constitutionally lower posts than the ones they had held. Many of them return as MPs, but are averse to accepting ministerial or even gubernatorial posts. A notable exception was C. Rajagopalachari, who had held the office of the governor-general of India—the last one to hold it and the only Indian—yet went on to serve in Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet and then as chief minister of Madras.