Politics took a back seat and performance underlined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third reshuffle of his Council of Ministers in which he promoted younger ministers, enrolled former bureaucrats and even broke the glass ceiling by bringing into prominence women members of the Cabinet. The promotion of Nirmala Sitharaman as defence minister, the second woman in the prestigious Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) besides Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, and continuation of Smriti Irani as minister in charge of textiles as well as information and broadcasting would surely count as popular moves by a Prime Minister largely known for his masculine image. Among the most crucial takeaways from the reshuffle, besides the country getting a woman defence minister after months of speculation, were the inclusion of eminent bureaucrats — India’s former ambassador to the UN Hardeep Puri, the “demolition man” of Delhi, former Delhi Development Authority (DDA) chairman KJ Alphons, former Mumbai police commissioner Satya Pal Singh, and former home secretary RK Singh — and the promotion of younger ministers such as Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and MA Naqvi as part of the Prime Minister’s ‘Operation 2019’ team for New India.

Given that performance was the yardstick it is curious to note that some obvious non-performers have escaped the axe. Even as Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Faggan Singh Kulaste resigned ahead of the reshuffle, Radha Mohan Singh, vastly criticised for his inefficient handling of the agrarian crisis and farmers’ distress, managed to stay on as agriculture minister. So did Giriraj Singh, who retained independent charge of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) despite the chaos and growth deficit in this sector.

A Cabinet reshuffle is a political exercise too and the messaging in this one was not lost. By not accommodating allies — Shiv Sena, Janata Dal (United) and AIADMK — and giving marginal consideration for poll-bound States (with the exception of including Anantkumar Hegde from Karnataka), the Prime Minister and BJP president Amit Shah, who has had a clear and critical role in the entire exercise, have indicated that the BJP no longer depends on allies or regional satraps to win future elections. Unlike the second Cabinet reshuffle last year in which Modi and Shah aimed to expand the BJP’s social support base in Uttar Pradesh where elections were to be held, the duo have shown no inclination this time to accommodate people with the right caste background from poll-bound Gujarat or Himachal Pradesh where elections are due this year. At a time when economic slowdown, unemployment and an agrarian crisis have started making headlines, the Prime Minister wants to send a message that his emphasis is on delivery and performance. As he enters the last 18 months of his tenure, being seen to deliver is clearly more critical than caste and regional considerations.