When the UPA government assumed office and P M Sayeed was appointed minister of power, it was suggested to him that he might want to change his secretary, a Vajpayee nominee. "No, no" said Sayeed with alarm. "He's a very good officer, he's helping us".

Any government which appoints a decent, upright, righteous non-performing asset such as P M Sayeed to a ministry as key as power, needs to think its priorities through. But that's another matter. Following Sayeed's sad demise, Sushilkumar Shinde became power minister. But did Shahi go?

No, he stayed and in fact got an extension in the same job. This was a mistake. Much of the flak that Sushilkumar Shinde is now getting for the countrywide power shortage - essentially the mess that the power sector in India is today - could have been deflected if Shinde had effected a conspicuous manpower reshuffle in the power ministry after he took over. Then, instead of saying he has proved to be an ineffective minister, people might have wisely nodded and said "at least he's trying to do something."

Today, the kindest verdict on Sushilkumar Shinde's performance as power minister is that he's been overwhelmed by the job. The fact is no one is quite sure who is running the power ministry. True, the minister inherited a performance deficit - the 10th Plan put power generation targets at 41,000 MW and the actual performance till date has been 23,000 MW. But he runs his ministry with a light hand.

None other than the Prime Minister has commented more than once that the power ministry needs to pull up its socks. The last such speech, as recently as March 27, noted that the total generation capacity in the 10th Plan was just above 50 per cent of what was targeted. "We need to do much better if we have to ensure that electricity does not become a constraint on our economy," the captain of the team said about a member.

There is cause for worry. The Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) was awarded by Sushilkumar Shinde last year. It was meant to be a showcase project. Because of loopholes in the tender document drawn up by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) with consultants Ernst and Young that were detected by consultants after the fact, the awardees - locally, Lanco and the UK's Globeleq (it subsequently withdrew) - were picked on, leaving the project hanging in midair.

Meanwhile, the government had to start buying power at punishingly high commercial rates. Now the Sasan project can only be revived through two routes: cancelling the whole project and rebidding; or offering it to the second bidder, Reliance. Limited bidding is also being suggested.

The unconscionable length of time it is taking for the government to decide on this - and the price at which it will finally buy power - suggests the ministry is in the grip of some kind of corporate war. No one has been held accountable for the failure of the project so far. Who could be exerting pressure? And who is really running a ministry whose faulty draughtsmanship has cost the government thousands of crores as it is now being forced to buy more expensive power?

Shinde is not a novice at administration. He's been the chief minister of Maharashtra and it was on his watch in 2004 that the Congress won the election, though with significantly fewer numbers. This was because during the earlier assembly election the Congress offered free electricity to farmers and a package to Vidarbha cotton farmers - both promises that it was unable to keep. Shinde is a Dalit from Solapur. Dalits of Maharashtra were promised reservation in private sector units that had come up on land given by the government. Even this is yet to be implemented.

The story of how the Congress was cheated out of forming a government in Maharashtra on its own terms after 2004 is equally unedifying. In 16 seats, the Congress had been placed number two. Sharad Pawar laid claim to these 16. They were conceded. So at one stroke 16 seats in which the Congress could have had a chance to win, were lost to it. Pawar won 13 out of these 16, which immediately strengthened its negotiating power.

If the Congress had contested these seats and won even 10 out of 16, it may have been able to negotiate from a position of strength. Shinde's wife's nomination for the assembly elections was seen as the quid pro quo for the deal. She lost.

The power minister is, without doubt today, the second-most important man in the government. Sushilkumar Shinde wears his power lightly and with no apparent exertion. The full story of the circumstances in which Dabhol is likely to be handed over to the private sector is yet to come out. It will, when the empowered Group of Ministers has finished its work. There too, the power ministry and the Maharashtra government do not cover themselves with glory. Can we have an effective power minister, please?