A New Set Of Ministers To Tackle The Serious Problems Facing The Nation
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-07-08 13:15:18
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
A Council of Ministers (CoM) revamp in India is not only about putting people in charge of various ministries to work to implement the policies of the government. It is also about representation - regional, social and of alliance partners, among others, in the government. Since the CoM was last constituted, two allies, the Shiv Sena and the Shiromani Akali Dal have left the NDA and consequently the ministries they held were reallocated to other existing ministers. Another ally, the JD(U) had not joined the government initially. Also, the CoM was functioning well below its allowed capacity of 81 members. Further, there was a need to induct members from the BJP as well as alliance partners. Then, it is always better to appraise existing ministers and shut out laggards who pull the government back. The present revamp, the first in the second term of Prime Minister Modi, takes into account all of this and also the fact that the government will now have to tighten its belt and work to bring the Covid-ravaged country back on rails. A new, younger and bigger CoM, with fewer ministers handling multiple portfolios, is more likely to take up the challenge and hit the ground running.
The Prime Minister has created a flutter by leaving out 7 senior ministers, several of whom were the face of the government in the media. IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, Labour minister Santosh Gangwar, Health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, I&B minister Prakash Javadekar, Chemicals & Fertilizer minister D V Sadanand Gowda and Social Justice & Empowerment minister Thaawarchand Gehlot were all dropped from the CoM, along with several junior ministers. This has allowed the elevation of several hardworking and better performing juniors. Hence, Kiren Rijiju, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala, G Kishan Reddy and Anurag Thakur have been promoted to cabinet rank.
Among the newcomers, Jyotiraditya Scindia has been made the minister of Civil Aviation with cabinet rank as much to respect his seniority and grassroots popularity as to give a signal to others in other parties who are thinking of switching to the BJP that they will also be suitably rewarded when the time comes. Among the allies, the JD(U) has joined this time and so has the Apna Dal from UP. Pashupati Kumar Paras has joined from the LJP with Nitish Kumar's blessings. Another interesting inclusion was Narayan Rane (ex-Shiv Sena and ex-Congress), given the continued spat between the BJP and the Shiv Sena although both parties chose to underplay it. Mansukh Mandaviya, Health & Family Welfare combined with Chemicals & Fertilizers and Ashwini Vaishnaw, Railways, Communications & Electronics & IT are seen to be the biggest gainers in the new ministry.
The composition of the CoM is being seen as an effort to include as many people from different regions of the country and from different caste and professions. Effort has also been made to include 7 women. Hence, it now has 13 lawyers, 6 doctors, 5 engineers and 7 former civil servants. It also boasts of 7 PhDs and 3 MBAs. 4 from Bengal, an important state for the BJP, have made it to the CoM although Dilip Ghosh lost out. Pratima Bhowmik. an MP from the small state of Tripura has also been inducted, becoming the first from that state to be a minister. The focus has been to include more OBCs as the BJP wants to preempt the SP from winning their votes in the UP elections next year.
It is now upon Prime Minister Modi to ensure that his new team gets down to work and implements the policies of the government efficiently and speedily to rebuild the nation and the economy. There is no doubt that with inflation at a high and job losses, salary cuts and business closures due to the pandemic having brought about a distressing situation for the common citizens, it matters little to them who is the minister of which ministry. The common citizens want their earlier life back. They expect the government to do so at the earliest. Now the new CoM must work towards that end on war footing.
