In one of the boldest and most comprehensive reshuffles of the council of ministers in his seven-year tenure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sacked many senior colleagues, elevated some and infused the government with new, young faces. A new Ministry of Cooperation was also created. 43 new ministers were sworn in, taking the strength of the Council of Ministers to 77. The reshuffle had politics at its heart. But the inclusion of several technocrats and former bureaucrats suggested governance and efficiency were the immediate priorities of the government in the rebuilding that will follow the devastation left behind by the pandemic.
Battling the optics of Covid mismanagement – the crisis faced by migrants that drew the ire of the judiciary, the oxygen and hospital bed shortages and the extended uncertainty of school board examinations – the PM sought to change the faces associated with the ministries and appointed new ministers for labour, health and education. He also sacked those ministers who forced the government to take its eye off the Covid-19 ball and created new problems for it by avoidable controversies, like the clash with IT giants WhatsApp and Twitter. Ministers whose performance in defending the government in Covid management was found sub par were sent home. So Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank were asked to resign. Minister for IT, Telecommunications and Law, Ravi Shankar Prasad, was given the boot. And Information & Broadcasting and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar was stripped of his ministership.
Politics dictated some choices. Pashupati Paras, the new leader of the Lok Janshakti Party who ousted his nephew Chirag, was appointed cabinet minister. The biggest complement of new ministers both cabinet rank and below, came from UP which is going to see assembly elections in a few months. This was followed by concessions to alliance partners like Apna Dal (led by Anupriya Patel who has become a minister) and Janata Dal United (which is now represented in the union cabinet by its General Secretary, RCP Singh). West Bengal, especially smaller communities like the Rajbangshi and Matua, found representation. And L Murugan, BJP party chief in Tamil Nadu who lost the assembly election but helped the party increase its representation in the state has become a union minister. Jyotiraditya Scindia who defected from the Congress, thus helping to install a BJP government in Madhya Pradesh was rewarded with cabinet rank. Narayan Rane, who shifted to the BJP from the Shiv Sena, and is expected to help the BJP install itself in the Ratnagiri area, a big Sena support base because of him, has also become a cabinet minister.
Some ministers were elevated as a reward for the work done by them and also for defending the government despite odds. Hardeep Puri is now a cabinet minister and the only Sikh in the government after the exit of the Shiromani Akali Dal from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He has come out in fierce defence of the government against criticism of the Central Vista project. Minister of state for finance, Anurag Thakur, was elevated to cabinet rank. Kiran Rijiju, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, was elevated to cabinet rank, possibly as a counterpoise to a man he considers a rival in the north east, Himanta Biswa Sarma, now CM of Assam. Sarbananda Sonowal, former Assam CM, was persuaded to join the union cabinet, enabling a free hand for Biswa Sarma, his successor.
Those among the technocrats who have become ministers for the first time are Ashwini Vaishnaw, former IAS officer who was PS to Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The then Odisha cadre officer, who was in the Biju Janata Dal but got a seat in the Rajya Sabha from the BJP. RCP Singh was chief Secretary of Bihar before he joined politics and is now a cabinet minister. Rajiv Chandrashekhar is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur and part owner in several media businesses. He was also one of the people who oversaw the Puducherry elections for the BJP, the only south Indian state among those that went to the polls earlier this year where the BJP was able to form a government.
Meenakshi Lekhi, an MP from Delhi, who became a minister and Chandrashekhar are both on the joint parliamentary committee for the Personal Data Protection Bill, which is in its final draft stage.
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