New Delhi, March 12: Why does Jayalalitha want her man as Finance Minister in the new government? The answer, according to Subramanian Swamy, is that AIADMK has 27 MPs to offer to the BJP and the least the party can do is to give just two portfolios. One of them includes Finance.Swamy should know better. Finance is today the virtual No 2 slot in the Cabinet. And Jayalalitha who is responsible for Swamy's political rehabilitation expects a reciprocal treatment from him. Her critics say she wants the man who dug out the corruption cases against her to preside over their funeral.Jayalalitha's political future has lots to do with her demand. There are several cases against her being handled by various agencies of the Finance Ministry. These include cases involving alleged FERA violations, assets disproportionate to income, alleged irregularities in a coal deal and in the upgradation of a hotel in Kodaikanal.Agencies which largely remain the organs of the Finance Ministry hold the key to many of thecases. The ministry controls the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) with the power to book suspects under FERA and COFEPOSA, and the Income Tax department with its writ running across all capital houses. The ministry also regulates and monitors through its agencies the functioning of all the financial institutions and banks as well.In fact, Jayalalitha's demand is hardly surprising given the rise in the Finance Ministry's stature over the years, a process which has been parallel to the decline of the Home Ministry.As Home Ministers, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, G B Pant and Lal Bahadur Shastri enjoyed the No 2 status, but the decline of the Home Ministry's importance began in 1969 when then prime minister Indira Gandhi decided to teach Y B Chavan a lesson. Piqued by the Maratha leader's fickle loyalty in the wake of the split in the party, she divested the Home of major responsibilities.To punish Chavan on the advice of her kitchen Cabinet, Indira Gandhi divested the ministry of powers such asstatutory control over a CBI probe. This was transferred to the Department of Personnel. This department, under the Home Ministry till the '60s, was later put under the Prime Minister's charge. Subsequently, the Ministry of Company Law was also taken away from the Home Ministry and vested with the Ministry of Finance.So, later, Pranab Mukherjee as Finance Minister would chair the Cabinet in the '80s in Indira Gandhi's absence while Zail Singh was the Home Minister of the day. V P Singh as Finance Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet held the same position and wielded the same clout between December 1984 and January 1987 until the prime minister came to know of his quiet hiring of Fairfax to probe the assets of Indians abroad.Essentially after the the quiet phase of economic liberalisation beginning in the '80s, and the aggressive and open phase from 1991, successive Finance Ministers or their offices have wielded more clout - both in the national and the international arena. P Chidambaram, a ministerof state during the 10th Lok Sabha would negotiate the country's agenda globally once he was made the Finance Minister in the United Front regime.``Now India has become sort of a market in the eyes of big powers. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Multinationals as well as foreign investors have their eyes on India. It is the Finance Minister they would like to have someone of their choice in their own interest,'' says T N Chaturvedi, a BJP parliamentarian.
