New Delhi, Jan. 19: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday reshuffled his council of ministers after 20 months. While he did not drop a single minister, he maintained the status quo by continuing with the top five ministers handling finance, home, defence, external affairs and human resources development.

Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, one of the cleanest faces in the Cabinet, will now deal with the key portfolio of petroleum and natural gas.

Dr Singh changed the portfolios of over a dozen Cabinet ministers in this exercise, including those of Mr Sharad Pawar, Mr Virbhadra Singh, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, Mr Kamal Nath, Mr Vayalar Ravi, Mr Murli Deora, Mr C.P. Joshi, Mr Subodh Kant Sahay, Dr M.S. Gill, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, Mr B.K. Handique and Kumari Selja.

After the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday evening, the Prime Minister described the exercise as a “minor” one, promising a “more expansive exercise” after the Budget Session of Parliament starting next month.

Political watchers were, however, left bewildered by the timing, scope and logic of the exercise, saying nothing much appeared to have been done barring the switching of portfolios between known faces.

Though 37 changes were made, there were only three new names. Some analysts felt an opportunity to send the right signal to the people, after a troublesome year of scams, had been lost. No one connected to any controversy regarding alleged financial irregularity was punished with removal.

Dr M.S. Gill was the only one shifted, from the sports and youth affairs ministry, after the Commonwealth Games fiasco. No significant new talent was brought in either and the portfolio swaps defeated logic; they appeared to have been effected without much thought on whether the incoming minister had qualities significantly better than his predecessor.

While the Prime Minister elevated Mr Praful Patel, Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal and Mr Salman Khurshid to the Cabinet, he also gave Mr Ajay Maken, Prof. K.V. Thomas, who were already ministers of state, independent charge of different portfolios.

Promotions: Praful Patel (industries), S. Jaiswal (coal) and S. Khurshid (water resources) elevated as Cabinet ministers.

OIL: S. Jaipal Reddy gets the petroleum and natural gas; Murli Deora moved to corporate affairs.

CIVIL AVIATION: Praful Patel moved from civil aviation to heavy industries and public enterprises.
Overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi gets additional charge of civil aviation.

SPORTS: Ajay Maken gets MoS Ind. charge of the sports and youth affairs. M.S. Gill moved to stats and prog. implementation.

COAL: Jaiswal elevated in the same ministry of Coal as a Cabinet minister.

Urban Development: Kamal Nath moved to the ministry from road transport and highways.

AGRICULTURE: Pawar sheds consumer affairs, food and civil supplies, retains agriculture and gets food processing industries.

MINES: B.K. Handique divested of mines. Dinsha Patel gets MoS mines independent charge.

TELECOM AND HRD: Kapil Sibal retains both crucial ministries.

New faces: Beni Prasad Verma (steel), Ashwani Kumar (parliamentary affairs) and K.C. Venugopal (power)

STEEL: Virbhadra shifted from steel to micro, small and medium enterprises.

RURAL DEV.: C.P. Joshi shifted from rural dev. and panchayat raj to road transport. Vilasrao Deshmukh shifted from heavy industries to rural dev. with addl charge of panchayat raj.

TOURISM: K. Selja loses tourism, gets addl charge of culture, retains housing and urban poverty alleviation. S.K. Sahay shifted from food industries to tourism.

WATER RESOURCES: Pawan Kumar Bansal retains parliamentary affairs, loses water resources to Salman Khurshid.

HEAVY INDUSTRIES: A. Sai Pratap gets heavy Industries as MoS. Gurudas Kamat shifted to home affairs as MoS.