O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Art attack
Court prescribes that Husain be at home
THE Delhi High Court’s quashing of three criminal proceedings against eminent artist M F Husain has not come a day too soon. In fact, such proceedings ought not to have been initiated, in the first instance. The cases and complaints against the iconic artist arising out of vandalism represent an atavistic intolerance that has no place in a “free and democratic society”.

Oil on fire
India unprepared for future shock
THE crude oil price has leapt to $123 and there are, as yet, no signs of its cooling off. This is despite a slowdown in the US, Europe and Asia. In fact, investment bank Goldman Sachs has predicted the oil price to reach a scary $200 a barrel in two years.

Shameful politics
Bring fairness into Panchayati Raj elections
PANCHAYATI Raj elections are supposed to be more of friendly contests than all-out battles like Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha polls. But this time in Punjab, such suppositions have been made to stand on their heads. The forthcoming polls have vitiated the atmosphere no end.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Mayawati’s mistake
Boosting self-respect alone doesn’t work
by Amulya Ganguli
MS Mayawati may or may not have heard of Sapurmurat Niyazov, who was president-for-life of Turkmenistan till he died in 2006. But like the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, the Turkmen leader, too, was fond of erecting statues — of himself and his near and dear ones.

MIDDLE

Jeers to cheers
by Chetna Keer Banerjee
The moral police opened fear gas at the venue of the IPL cheerleaders’ meeting. Its battalions were threatening to disrupt the proceedings when the door opened. Out trooped members of the firang dal. The dupatta-covered spokesperson stepped forward to unveil their future plan to the media.

OPED

Lawyers as judges
They cannot negate the right to a fair trial
by Subhash Gatade
Ismail Jalagir, a senior counsel from Hubli (Karnataka) and Mohammad Shoaib, a senior advocate from Lucknow (UP), might not have heard about each other. But even their strongest critics would admit that they are made of the same mettle.

Ladakhi women’s foray into governance
by Yangchan Dolma
Being a woman in Ladakh has traditionally meant having a position of respect, in a society seen to be liberal in its gender attitudes and patterns. But this stops at women staying in the roles designated for them within the cultural and social patterns and roles that have emerged over time.

Berlusconi returns in style
by Peter Popham
ROME – Silvio Berlusconi’s new government was sworn in last week, completing a changing of the guard from the government of Romano Prodi transacted at blinding speed by Italian standards.

EDITORIALS

Art attack
Court prescribes that Husain be at home

THE Delhi High Court’s quashing of three criminal proceedings against eminent artist M F Husain has not come a day too soon. In fact, such proceedings ought not to have been initiated, in the first instance. The cases and complaints against the iconic artist arising out of vandalism represent an atavistic intolerance that has no place in a “free and democratic society”. It is paradoxical that courts, which are meant for actualising and safeguarding freedoms, are being misused by vandals to not only curb freedom of expression but actually defend vandalism. It is frightening enough that those persecuting Husain, trashing his works and ghettoising him as a “communalist” get away. Worse, these lumpen hordes, masquerading as “cultural activists”, enjoy the political patronage to project themselves as custodians of public sentiment. So much so that India’s best-known and most prolific painter in his nineties has been forced to virtually flee the country and live abroad in self-imposed exile.

The court has rightly held the allegations made against the artist that his paintings were obscene and hurt “public sentiments” to be baseless. Obscenity, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder, remarked the court, which was unsparing in its criticism of the mindset that led to Husain being hounded. “It is most unfortunate that India’s new ‘puritanism’ is being carried out in the name of cultural purity and ignorant people vandalise art”. The demands of freedom require that all the other cases filed against Husain also be quashed without the least loss of judicial effort and time, for these cases are unworthy of intelligent attention.

The way the cases were filed in different courts in various states exposes that the interest of the complainants is to harass Husain and make him fear for his life in India. Earlier this year, he made a plea for omnibus protection from the Supreme Court and sought a direction that such complaints should be filed against him only in a Delhi court. As a result, most of the cases pending elsewhere were transferred to Delhi. Now the court should ensure protection to Husain and his fundamental right to live without fear of threats and harassment in the country of his birth. As the court said, he “deserves to be in his home, painting his canvas”.

Oil on fire
India unprepared for future shock

THE crude oil price has leapt to $123 and there are, as yet, no signs of its cooling off. This is despite a slowdown in the US, Europe and Asia. In fact, investment bank Goldman Sachs has predicted the oil price to reach a scary $200 a barrel in two years. A few months ago predictions of the oil price crossing the $100 barrier had invited ridicule, but now anything appears possible. The latest surge in prices is attributed to the disruption in Iraq production, militant attacks on Nigeria’s oil facilities, the hurricane damage in the Gulf of Mexico, the growing demand in India and China and the weakening of the dollar.

India’s oil companies suffer a daily loss of more than Rs 450 crore. To cover up the under-recoveries, the government may borrow more from the market rather than raise the domestic oil and gas prices. Any hike in the oil prices would push up prices across the board. Fighting inflation, which is at an uncomfortable level of 7.61 per cent, is currently the government’s top priority. Besides, the ruling party would not like to annoy the voter at this time due to the coming assembly and general elections.

Regrettably, the government has not worked out any strategy to face the grim situation. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram talks of forming a buyers’ cartel but nothing concrete has been done. An Asian cartel, or at least an Indo-China tie-up, can apply pressure on the producers to keep prices in line with production costs. Alternative sources of energy have to be tapped on priority. Biofuel production is being encouraged, but it should not be at the cost of food as is done in the US. The public transport system will have to be improved to cut the use of personal vehicles. Cheaper domestic oil gives the users little reason to avoid wastage. A nationwide conserve-energy movement, therefore, is the need of the hour.

Shameful politics
Bring fairness into Panchayati Raj elections

PANCHAYATI Raj elections are supposed to be more of friendly contests than all-out battles like Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha polls. But this time in Punjab, such suppositions have been made to stand on their heads. The forthcoming polls have vitiated the atmosphere no end. There are widespread allegations of misuse of official machinery by the Akali Dal government. Even the BJP is disillusioned with its long-time partner. Opposition leaders have talked of attempts to frame them in false cases. Even more serious are the allegations of the Congress that in some places, the returning officers and SAD leaders allegedly connived and forged signatures of Congress nominees to show their withdrawal from elections. There are also allegations of mala fide rejection of nomination papers of Congress candidates in Gurdaspur. Since the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the rejection, there are reasons to believe that the allegations are not trumped up after all.

Such coercive techniques are not exactly new for Punjab but their deployment on such a big scale this time is a matter of deep concern. The ruling party should have gone out of its way to ensure that there is no scope for doubting the fairness of the elections, but it has unfortunately done quite the opposite. Policemen and other officials have not been without bias at many places. The Election Commission must take all these complaints very seriously.

It must also keep a sharp eye on the expenditure made on the elections and the bid to buy voters’ allegiance. Even otherwise, it is highly condemnable to bring the virus of party politics into local bodies elections. In rural areas, polarisation caused by such unhealthy rivalry lasts a long time, diminishing the efficacy of panchayati raj institutions. The ideal situation would have been the total absence of political parties from the arena. But that is just not possible under the given circumstances. An attempt should be made to ensure that at least patently illegal activities do not come into play.

Thought for the day

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. — John Locke

ARTICLE

Mayawati’s mistake
Boosting self-respect alone doesn’t work
by Amulya Ganguli

MS Mayawati may or may not have heard of Sapurmurat Niyazov, who was president-for-life of Turkmenistan till he died in 2006. But like the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, the Turkmen leader, too, was fond of erecting statues — of himself and his near and dear ones.

His most celebrated tribute to himself was a statue of gold which revolved on its base so that the dictator always faced the sun. As at the time of the British empire, the sun never set on Niyazov — as long as it was over the horizon. There was also a statue in Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashkhabad, the City of Love, of the president’s mother with the baby Niyazov in her arms.

Statues, however, had rarely been a part of the Indian scene till the arrival of the British. The earlier rulers were more interested in inscribing their messages on stone, as Asoka did, or building places of worship, places of burial, palaces, gardens and forts as during the so-called Hindu and Muslim “periods” than in erecting statues of themselves.

One of the few statues of historical times which has come down to us is that of the Kushan emperor, Kanishka, who ruled in the 1st century A.D. Arguably, the Hindu concept of maya underlining the illusory nature of the world and the Muslim dislike for iconography where the human form was concerned, were responsible for this attitude.

The British were different, but their purpose of erecting the likenesses of their monarchs and viceroys was to impress the locals. Little wonder that once they were gone, the statues were quickly dumped in PWD godowns although some of them were quite beautiful.

Inevitably, the statues of Indian leaders replaced them as it had now become a tradition of sorts to set them up. But they were all of dead heroes, erected by their admirers. Ms Mayawati, however, has set a new trend by setting up a statue of herself in Lucknow.

What has persuaded her to take this rather unusual step can perhaps be gauged from another habit of hers — amassing a fortune and acquiring property. The increase in her assets from Rs 11.78 crore to Rs 52 crore in three years has been a cause of surprise and snide comments.

But what is noteworthy is that she has been quite unabashed about her acquisition of wealth, which she ascribes to the gifts she receives from her admirers. In an astonishing verdict, the income tax appellate tribunal even accepted her plea that gifts worth Rs 62.72 lakh and cash payments of Rs 2 lakh were a token of her followers’ “love and affection” for her.

While the upper castes and classes may mock her transformation from being the daughter of a post office employee to being a millionaire, she evidently believes that her riches are a cause of pride among the Dalits, who constitute her main social and political base.

The psychology behind this attitude can be discerned from V.S.Naipaul’s observation in A Turn in the South that “for about a hundred years after the abolition of slavery, the Black people had no heroes … But then, when a political life developed … West Indian Blacks acquired leaders, union men in many cases, who then became political leaders … For these early leaders who were their very own, West Indian Blacks had more than adulation …They wished their leaders (who had started as poor as everybody else) to be rich (by whatever means) and powerful and glorious. The glory of the Black leader became the glory of his people”.

In the Indian context, this mentality is the opposite of what can be seen among the upper castes. For the latter, a leader gains in stature via tyag (renunciation) while bhog (conspicuous consumption) is a political disadvantage if only because it denotes the dissolute nature of the rich, usually a feudal landlord.

Besides, the affluent are invariably suspected of having gained their wealth by exploiting the poor. The Mahatma understood this mindset. Hence, his role as the “half-naked fakir”.

And when Mr V.P.Singh set out on the road which led to his becoming the Prime Minister, his followers chanted: raja nahin fakir hai, Bharat ki taqdir hai, realising that being the Raja of Manda was not politically helpful.

Clearly, while the upper caste leaders look upon their wealth and high social status as liabilities which emphasise their elitism, marking their difference from ordinary people, a Dalit leader seems to regard the acquisition of these very attributes as a sign that he or she has broken through the centuries-old glass barrier on behalf of the indigent followers. The leader does not feel diffident, therefore, in displaying his or her newly acquired assets.

The difficulty, however, is that this tactic can work only up to a point. As long as Ms Mayawati regarded herself only as a Dalit icon, the flaunting of her wealth and self-advertisement via her statues were aimed at consolidating her base. It went well with her intemperate slogan of the early days: tilak, tarazu aur talwar, inko maro jootey char.

But like all those who build their political influence on a narrow platform — Dalits in her case, the OBCs for Mr Lalu Yadav and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Hindus for the BJP, the working class for the communists — a time comes when they realise the need to broaden their appeal.

To do this, they have to moderate their earlier aggressive stance. So, instead of threatening the Brahmins (tilak), the traders (tarazu) and the Thakurs (talwar) with shoes, Ms Mayawati’s new slogan is Haathi nahin, Ganesh hai, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hai.

As is obvious, the new mantra is intended to persuade the upper castes, mainly the Brahmins, to rally behind the BSP’s election symbol of an elephant. But the endeavour may run into difficulties not only because of the long-prevalent social barriers between the upper castes and the former “untouchables”, but also because of attitudinal differences over exhibitionism.

This particular trait of Ms Mayawati may prove to be an even bigger obstacle than the traditional caste inhibitions to her dream of sustaining a rainbow alliance in her quest to be the Prime Minister.

The reason is that for the upper castes as well as the upper and middle classes, the penchant for erecting statues of herself can seem ridiculous and even laughable. Incidentally, the fact that she is not averse to playing the untouchability card was seen from the absurd allegation that Mr Rahul Gandhi washed himself with a special soap after spending some time with Dalits.

Apart from her immodest showiness, the spending of crores of rupees on projects for statues instead of on schools and hospitals is not likely to yield political dividends over a long period.

Her wasteful expenditure may initially impress her core constituency, but once they see the absence of bijli, sadak and pani, they may begin to look for other options.

Mr Lalu Yadav experienced this rejection after a decade and a half in power when he saw that banking on boosting asmita or self-respect of the OBCs alone would not fetch his party votes all the time. In a democracy, development wins elections, not ostentation.

MIDDLE

Jeers to cheers
by Chetna Keer Banerjee

The moral police opened fear gas at the venue of the IPL cheerleaders’ meeting. Its battalions were threatening to disrupt the proceedings when the door opened.

Out trooped members of the firang dal. The dupatta-covered spokesperson stepped forward to unveil their future plan to the media.

Her voice rose over the din. Bare-ly.

“The Cheerleaders’ India Chapter has decided to go in for a new identity,...a…a,” she fumbled for the correct pronunciation, “A…Chhavi Parivartan. The changes shall be laid bare at the next IPL match.”

That sent up cheer among the jeer leaders.

And sent the cheerleaders on a makeover spree. Four gurus were called in.

The Jazzy 4.

Enter Jazzy 1. What with the bare-all belles coming in for a dressing down for hemlines that travelled too much north and necklines that plunged too much south, a couture czar was deputed to help arrive at north-south consensus in sartorial presentation.

His was the strand behind the throne. His were the fabrics that clothed the former queen of Tamil politics J. Jayalalithaa. Welcome, prêt pasha Pahiliani. His brief was to undo apparel that was all too brief.

He thus launched his under-cover operations pronto. The cheerleaders’ cleavages were sent under cover, in trademark JJ style capes. For the lower limbs, micro minis gave way to macro lehengas that went to great lengths to caress the ground they walked on.

Sharare zameen par.

Enter Jazzy 2. She was flown in from the Latin American continent. Hers was a throat that had done wonders for the hip.

There arrived singing sensation Fakira.

She’d come out with an album meant exclusively for the cheerleaders in India and her task was to restrict their Nach Belly-e.

For this, she gave them a crash course in an innovative dance form — hip stop. It entailed constricting the buttocks into non-seductive immobility whilst the rest of the torso swayed.

“C’mon girls, action. No ifs and butts…” And the music blared.

I’m off tonight… hips don’t hilai...

Enter Jazzy 3 and 4. The morality mafia had even issued warnings to the IPL choreographer “Agah” Khan and lyricist “Jaa Ve” Akhtar. This was no music to their ears. They planned to take no chances with the next show and got set to sing an altogether different tune….

D-day arrived. Team Bhajji vs Team Sreesanth. The pitch rolled. The new score played when in the boys strolled.

“All hot boys c’mon make less noise.”

Next, it was over to the maidens.

Within seconds, the cheerleaders had even their detractors bowled over and how! None could match them in their new avatar: attired as jogans of the newly christened Haare Trishna cult.

Loud cheers went up when they swayed to the chorus: “All cool gals put your hands up ‘n’ sing…”

Om Scanty Om.

OPED

Lawyers as judges
They cannot negate the right to a fair trial
by Subhash Gatade

Ismail Jalagir, a senior counsel from Hubli (Karnataka) and Mohammad Shoaib, a senior advocate from Lucknow (UP), might not have heard about each other. But even their strongest critics would admit that they are made of the same mettle.

What they have achieved – without bothering about danger to personal security and wellbeing – is really stupendous. They not only defied an unethical ban imposed by their fellow ‘brethren’ from their profession about not taking up specific cases, but also exposed the manner in which a particular community is being ‘stigmatised and terrorised’ with due connivance of the police, media and a pliant legal fraternity.

But for the efforts of Mohammad Shoaib, Aftab Alam Ansari from Kolkatta would have been languishing in jail as a ‘Lashkar-e-Toiba’ operative supposedly involved in the bomb blasts in UP courts.

And there would have been no counsel for Asadullah Abubaker, Riyazuddin Nasir, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Shakeel from Hubli and adjoining areas, if Ismail Jalagir had not decided to take the plunge. When Karnataka police arrested this foursome under charges of ‘terrorism’, there was no one to argue their case.

Jalagir faced the wrath of the Sangh Parivar. Miscreants tried to set fire to his office and even his junior’s house was stoned. The role of the media in the whole case was also biased. Despite senior police officers’ contention that the accused had no specific targets in Karnataka and there was no definite information, the local media had mounted a cacophonic campaign of misinformation.

As of now, Mohammad Shoiab is handling many such cases in different courts of UP. He too has come under direct physical attack at many places and in one latest incident in the Faizabad court, he had to be literally ‘cordoned’ by a police team to save him from getting badly thrashed by fellow lawyers.

A disturbing aspect of the whole scenario is that neither Hubli nor Lucknow are exceptions. Today, one after the other, bar associations are coming forward and passing resolutions about not taking up cases of a specific nature which according to them have ‘anti-national’ aspects. The latest to join the bandwagon is bar associations in Madhya Pradesh, who have declared that they would not take up any cases where alleged operatives of an Islamic organisation were nabbed by the police.

The lawyers have not limited themselves to passing resolutions – they have exhibited their ‘readiness’ to implement them also. At some places, they have not even hesitated in physically assaulting/intimidating anyone who opposed such a move or tried to take up cudgels on behalf of those accused who were charged with ‘terrorism’ by the police.

If earlier the ‘boycott’ by bar associations seemed to be a spontaneous reaction of the lawyers to any individual gory act which created revulsion in the wider populace, now it seems to be a more organised affair where vested interests, owing allegiance to sectarian ideologies, seem to have taken over.

These forces have tried to manipulate and orchestrate peoples’ anger over ‘violent acts’ in such a manner that it has created an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ like situation culminating in the stigmatisation of a particular minority community.

In fact, the complete absence of lawyers from the courts in addressing particular cases which have or had ‘terrorist’ bearings has led to a situation where many innocent persons are languishing in jails for no fault of theirs, and it has become impossible to get them released even on bail.

It would not be incorrect to say that Uttar Pradesh is the ‘birth-place’ of this phenomenon. It all started in 2005 when there was a terrorist attack on the temporary structure at the disputed site in Ayodhya. Faizabad bar association took a lead and declared that it would not take up cases of accused in the particular case.

When a team of lawyers from outside the city ventured to reach the Faizabad courts to take up bail applications of the accused, it literally came under attack and had to leave the city under police protection. When legal proceedings in the Varanasi case started (2006), regarding the terrorist incidents in the Sankatmochan temple and railway station, one was witness to a similar action by Varanasi lawyers. November 2007 witnessed bomb blasts in the courts of Varanasi, Lucknow and Faizabad and then the bar associations in Lucknow and Barabanki also joined the boycott of ‘terrorist’ cases.

Mr K.G. Kannabiran, Vice-president of People’s Union for Civil Liberties and a famous human rights activist, who is himself an advocate by profession, recently issued an appeal to fellow lawyers to reconsider and rescind their decision of boycott of particular cases. In his appeal he rightly said:

“The Bar Resolution stifles right of the accused to defend himself at the trial. Our right to practice this profession is part of our fundamental rights. The accused has a right under Article 21 of the Constitution. Article 22 (1) gives the right to a suspect to have a lawyer present at the time of arrest and interrogation. The lawyers’ right to practice a profession or calling is directly concerned with these fundamental rights of a citizen who is an accused. Article 21’s right includes the right of the accused to have a lawyer for the defense…

“Can the members of the Bar negate the right of the accused available to him under Article 21? The position taken by the Resolution is not morally or constitutionally justified… Arguing for a fair trial cannot be equated with or confused with asking to exonerate the guilty of his crime.”

One can only hope that wiser sense prevails among the legal community and they would decide to rescind their earlier resolve to boycott such cases. In case this does not happen, the Bar Council of India, a regulatory body, should take serious note of the matter.

Ladakhi women’s foray into governance
by Yangchan Dolma

Being a woman in Ladakh has traditionally meant having a position of respect, in a society seen to be liberal in its gender attitudes and patterns. But this stops at women staying in the roles designated for them within the cultural and social patterns and roles that have emerged over time.

The J&K Panchayat Raj institution came into existence three years before the 73rd Amendment Act of the Central Government. This has a provision for reservation for women on Panch seats but not for the Sarpanch of the Halqa Panchayat, a significant level of the tier system of Panchayati Raj.

Panchayati Raj in effect began in Ladakh in 2001. In the first ever Panchayat election, 37 women became Panches through consensus nomination of their respective villages. Five of them contested the election. The Government, in an attempt to meet the mandatory 33 per cent reservation, directed the opening up of the seats in the Halqa Panchayat

A key factor in governance and politics has been the establishment of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council in 1995. The step implied growth in political opportunities for the Ladakhi, a say in matters of governance, and a mechanism to fashion development and growth according to the unique and particular needs of the region.

However, this has not reflected in any tangible thrust of the Council to women’s development or empowerment in Leh district. Amongst the 26 members of the General Council of LAHDC, there are two nominated women councilors. Both of them are on the reserved seats – Spalzes Angmo nominated for all the three terms on the principle of minority and Tashi Angmo on the reservation of weaker section.

In spite of the opportunity for some women to make a difference, being part of the Hill Council, their performance and track-record has been lack-lustre. Their contribution to the processes of planning and setting agendas is negligible. For women in the Halqa Panchayat it is the same story. At both these levels it is an opportunity lost.

G.M. Sheikh, who works on women’s leadership, points out: “Women in the Councilor’s post unfortunately lack understanding of women’s issues and needs in society.”

However, this speaks of a deeper malaise, a root cause for which it is probably unfair to blame the individual women in power and governance systems. Shiekh opines: “Ladakhi society is patriarchal and is the main barrier to the participation of women in governance and decision-making in the society. The general perception still persists that these jobs are the responsibility of men”.

Tsering Dolker, General Secretary of Women’s Alliance of Ladakh says this mind-set itself discourages women’s participation in governance. The myth of the Ladakhi women being at par with the males in society stops short of their participation in governance and the political process, which in some ways is the yardstick or the acid test of women’s empowerment in any region.

Unless women participate fully and are part of not only public discourse on any issue but of the process of governance, they will remain in the shadows, more as decorative value, as emblems of a rich and fascinating culture no doubt, but without a role in development.

Development itself suffers from this lack of women’s participation, their perspectives and their contribution to actual work on the ground, which women in Panchayati Raj institutions across the country are bringing in. The steps taken by the J&K Government have been short-sighted in this matter and rather than a demonstrated commitment to Panchayati Raj have been vacillating possibly because of the regime changes and political compulsions of the day.

Ladakh as a region suffers from being disconnected and in some sense sidelined even within the state, and this finds reflection in the political representation from the region at the national level. There were two Lok Sabha seats, each for Leh and Kargil, till 1995 and four seats after delimitation. Leh has a largely Buddhist population and Kargil is dominated by Muslims, a demographic fact which has in a sense polarised Ladakh on the lines of religion and region, leaving very little space for the development agenda and much less, a women-centric development agenda.

Today educated women in Ladakh still avoid the public domain of governance and prefer regular jobs. But the winds of change are blowing albeit gently and will in time give way to a more progressive era.

– Charkha Features

Berlusconi returns in style
by Peter Popham

ROME – Silvio Berlusconi’s new government was sworn in last week, completing a changing of the guard from the government of Romano Prodi transacted at blinding speed by Italian standards.

Berlusconi left opponents, allies and media observers gasping as he breezed into the head of state’s office on Wednesday with a full list of ministers already prepared. Such a thing has never happened before in messy, snail-pace, fudge-happy post-war Italy, where allocating portfolios among a baffling variety of parties often takes weeks.

And over three weeks of talks, Berlusconi has left his coalition allies, the post-Fascist National Alliance and the secessionist Northern League, in no doubt that this time around he will be the boss. The top jobs go to Berlusconi loyalists.

Another sure sign of the Forza Italia leader’s deciding vote is the fact that all four women in the cabinet are strikingly good looking, and include the former show girl Mara Carfagna, 32 (who has a law degree) as Equal Opportunities Minister.

The average age of the new cabinet is 50, remarkably low for Italy; but the average age of the women ministers – Berlusconi calls them le bambine, “the kids” – is 34.

Berlusconi has been aided in his efforts to speed things up by the fact that the last election, at which he won a handsome majority, saw the number of parties represented in parliament shrink dramatically from 26 to six. He is also aided by Italy’s desperate financial situation: with growth close to zero, there is an awareness that tough decisions must be taken.

Neither of the immediate crises awaiting Berlusconi’s attention – the imminent bankruptcy of Alitalia, and the rubbish disaster in Naples – offer easy or comfortable solutions. Berlusconi wasted months of parliamentary time between 2001 and 2006 forcing through laws to extract himself from legal difficulties, but this time he must do things differently.

A commanding prime minister is a novelty in post-war Italy. Not any more, says the media billionaire. He can count on loyal cronies in key jobs: Giulio Tremonti is once again his Finance Minister, the multi-millionaire lawyer who in a previous incarnation helped Berlusconi minimise his tax burden now taking on the task of pulling the Italian economy out of recession.

Franco Frattini returns from Brussels where he was EU Justice Commissioner to being Foreign Minister as he was for two years in the last Berlusconi government. In the other key job of Justice Minister is Angelino Alfano, equally loyal to Berlusconi, a 38-year-old Sicilian with clean hands and a taste for hard rock.

And Roberto Calderoli, the Muslim-baiting League politician who wore a T-shirt illustrated with one of the Danish cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohamed was named Minister for Simplification, with the task of eliminating defunct laws.

“I have five years to change the country,” Berlusconi said. The outside world may have to adjust to the novelty of a Berlusconi bereft of gags.

By arrangement with The Independent