Criteria For Ministership

Back in the day, when President Clinton selected a 68 year old Christopher Warren for the post of Foreign Secretary, a common grouse was that the man is too old for a job like that. The naysayers had a point. Foreign Minister is the face of the nation in other countries. You want someone with a dynamic personality and a glib diplomatic tongue. People who followed Christopher were just that. Madeline Albright was not too bad but then came General Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton. All of them very bright articulate, dynamic and energetic. They are the kind of people who you would want representing you. You do not want someone who would read the wrong speech at the UN, go on for three minutes and even then not realize that it was the wrong speech.
What are the criteria for selecting ministers in India? It, almost NEVER is qualification. It always is proximity to the power center, loyalty to a family, money / vote generating ability and of course the number of MP’s in your pocket if there is a coalition government. The list of people representing some of these departments is real howlers. People who know less than an average well read aam aadmi become the ministers of sensitive departments. People who have no sense of history or belonging are privy to secrets of the state.
If you look at the way they select people to represent various departments in the US, you will realize that our method is detrimental to the progress of the nation. Even after selection by the US president, the person has to go through a grueling confirmation process. In our country, whims and self-interests of a person or a family decide all that.
These are all signs of an immature democracy. We are a young democracy and are liable to make mistakes. However, we need to start installing procedures, which will save us the kind of embarrassment that we faced at the UN recently. If we start now, maybe those practices will start taking roots and we will find our country led by able people. But we do not see any signs of that. None of this will really happen unless we start marginalizing the regional parties and dynastic politics. Until then, keep a hat nearby to hide your face.

India's foreign minister inadvertently reads Portuguese statement at the U.N.
Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna's visit last week to the United Nations was supposed to provide New Delhi with an opportunity to shine on the world stage, to show that India is a serious emerging power that deserves to sit with other world powers. It didn’t quite turn out that way. Krishna, in his first appearance before the U.N. Security Council since his country began a two-year stint in January as a temporary member of the U.N. security body, read the wrong speech. For three minutes, Krishna read from the official statement of the foreign minister of Portugal, Luis Amado, noting with a gracious smile his "satisfaction regarding the happy coincidence of having two members of the Portuguese speaking countries" addressing the 15-nation council."
The article can be read at: http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/02/14/indias_foreign_minister_inadvertently_reads_portuguese_statement_at_the_un