Kitchen cabinet
Topic: Union Executive: President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Council of Ministers · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A kitchen cabinet is an informal inner circle around the Prime Minister. It is made up of a few trusted ministers, advisers, and sometimes people who are not ministers at all. It has no legal basis in the Constitution or the Rules of Business. Major decisions are often shaped there before they reach the formal Cabinet, which shows how power can move away from the Cabinet towards the PM.
Example
Under Indira Gandhi, a small group of trusted ministers and advisers is said to have shaped key decisions before the Cabinet formally discussed them.
Don't confuse with
- Cabinet committees: they are formal bodies set up under the Rules of Business, such as the Cabinet Committee on Security. A kitchen cabinet is unofficial.
- Cabinet: it is the formal inner group of senior ministers, named in Art. 352(3). A kitchen cabinet is smaller and has no legal standing.
Related concepts
- Prime Minister of India
- Six-month rule for non-member ministers
- S.R. Chaudhuri case
- Primus inter pares
- Deputy Prime Minister