oppn parties A New Set Of Ministers To Tackle The Serious Problems Facing The Nation

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
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  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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A New Set Of Ministers To Tackle The Serious Problems Facing The Nation

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-07-08 13:15:18

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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. 

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