Thursday, 08 July 2021 | Deepak K Upreti | New Delhi
12 Ministers dropped; none indispensable in PM’s political & governance objectives
In a major Cabinet overhaul, seen as a mid-term appraisal of his Ministers and resetting Government’s profile post-Covid-19 for the next three-year term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday surprised many by dropping 12 Ministers, including many heavy weights, and inducting several new faces balancing caste and regional aspirations.
The PM’s new Cabinet has few known BJP old-timers, and looks far different from the one that Modi led in 2014.
In a way the removal of as many as six heavyweight Cabinet Ministers including, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Harsh Vardhan, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar and Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank is also a candid admission by the Prime Minister that several of his Cabinet colleagues failed to execute his mission on the ground.
The Prime Minister has clearly indicated that no one is indispensable in his scheme of things, and he could sacrifice anyone to meet his political and governance objectives.
Despite the slogans of “sabka sath sabka vikas,” the Cabinet reshuffle has been based on caste consideration at every level.
The mega-reshuffle witnessed an obvious OBC (Other Backward Caste) bias in the new Modi Cabinet with the induction of as many as 27 OBC Ministers prompting a pun “abki baar OBC sarkar”.
The inclusion of so many OBCs is an attempt of Modi to shift base of the BJP from dominant upper caste to backward communities.
There are 12 SC and eight Tribal inclusions too in the “new look” Modi Cabinet.
North-East received a big dose with about half a dozen entries from the region with Modi continuing his “look-east” policy in his second innings at the Centre.
Poll-bound Uttar Pradesh gets seven Ministers, including Annupriya Patel of Aapna Dal (S), an NDA ally and Gujarat has five representations in the council of Ministers. Karnataka is up by four Ministers which includes Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s close associate Shobha Karndlaje, a representative of influential Vokaliga community and Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Rajya Sabha member) and Harward educated businessman from the State .
West Bengal has got four Ministers with the dominant Matua community getting significant presence.
Before the President Ram Nath Kovind sworn-in 43 Ministers here at “Darbar hall’, which included BJP vice-president Jyotiraditya Scindia, former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, and former Maharashtra deputy-Chief Minister and ex-Shiv Sena Narayan Rane, announcement came that 12 Union Ministers have been asked to resign.
Thirty-six new Ministers joined the Government. Seven- Anurag Thakur, Parshottam Rupala, G Kishan Reddy, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, and Manush Mandavya – have been promoted to the Cabinet rank.
Inclusion of BJP General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav, RS MP and close confidant of Union home minister, and party’s New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi is significant and appreciation of their role in their various capacities in the organisation. Yadav who heads as many as 25 parliamentary committees, has been credited for his contribution in helping party win various assembly polls including BIhar.
With this ambitious rejig, Prime Minister has now 77 Ministers, nearly half of them new and seven promoted.
Several other Ministers including Babul Supriyo (West Bengal) Debasree Chaudhuri (West Bengal), Rattan Lal Kataria (Haryana), Sanjay Dhotre (Maharshtra), Thawarchand Gehlot (Maharshtra), Pratap Chandra Sarangi (MoS) (Odisha)and Ashwini Chaubey (MoS) ( Bihar) have also tendered their resignation.
The reshuffle follows a serial review exercise by the Prime Minister and the BJP top brass including BJP president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Cabinet Ministers include Sonowal, Scindia, Rane, Dr. Virendra Kumar, Ramchandra Prasad Singh, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Pashu Pati Kumar Paras, Kiren Rijiju, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandaviya, Bhupender Yadav, Parshottam Rupala, G. Kishan Reddy, and Anurag Singh Thakur.
Seven women MPs took oath on Wednesday, which took the strength of woman Ministers to 11 in the Modi Cabinet.
In 2019, Modi it was criticised for giving meagre representation to women with only three Cabinet Ministers and 3 Ministers of State. The seven women MPs who were sworn in on Wednesday are likely to get Ministers of State with the number of Cabinet ministers remaining two. Niranjan Jyoti, Renuka Singh, and Debasree Chaudhury were the Ministers of State. Among them, Debasree Chaudhury has been dropped in this reshuffle.
