Surprise exits: Several top ministers dropped from PM Modi's Cabinet

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mega Cabinet expansion on Wednesday was packed with surprises. Ironically though, it was the high-profile sackings from the Cabinet that surprised more than the inclusion of new faces in the Union council of ministers.
Hours before the scheduled Cabinet expansion came the first surprise in the form of resignation of Union health minister Harshvardhan and his deputy Ashwini Choubey.
Though it was PM Modi who was strategising and spearheading the fight against Covid, the health minister was the face and his ministry the nodal point for all Union actions.
Harsh Vardhan's remark "We are in the end game of the Covid-19 pandemic in India" in March 2021, days before the severe second wave struck the country became a huge embarrassment for him as well as the government.
It reflected how the Union government was caught completely unawares about the impending disaster.
Ravi Shankar Prasad was another high-profile minister to be dropped from the Union Cabinet. While it may be difficult to guess any specific reason for his sacking, the minister's handling of the new IT rules lately had run into controversy. His bitter run-ins with the social media platform Twitter over the issue may not have helped his cause.
Another surprise exit from the Union Cabinet was Prakash Javadekar, who was a key spokesperson defending the party and the governnment for years at various forums. The soft-spoken minister was the face of Cabinet briefings and often announced key policy decisions taken by the government.
Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', the education minister in the Modi Cabinet till now, has also been left out. Possibly the issue of confusion over important examination dates for Class 12th students due to the pandemic may have contributed towards his exit.
Yesterday, social justice and empowerment minister Thaawarchand Gehlot had resigned from the Cabinet after he was made the governor of Karnataka.
Besides these leaders, chemicals and fertilisers minister D V Sadananda Gowda, labour minister Santosh Gangwar, minister of state for education Sanjay Dhotre, minister of state for women and child development Debasree Chaudhuri, minister of state for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria and minister of state for environment Babul Supriyo were also dropped from the Union Cabinet.
Babul Supriyo took to the Facebook to say that he was "asked to resign". He also said that "he was sad". However, as an afterthought, the BJP MP from Bengal soon added a correction saying "he had resigned". To say that "he had been asked to resign" was not correct, he added.
(With inputs from agencies)
Watch RS Prasad to Javadekar to Babul Supriyo: The high-profile ministers who quit before Modi's Cabinet reshuffle