Image credits: India TV
The latest cabinet reshuffle brought many high-profile new entrants. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi endeavoured to represent every state of India. What’s more fascinating is that it is the first time there are 11 women ministers in the government. Also, Modi has tried to include people from different social backgrounds. Considering the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2022, the state has been given much importance. There are seven new faces from the state leading to 15 ministers from the most populous state of India. Together with 68 Ministers having graduate degrees, the current government has 13 lawyers, six doctors, five engineers, seven civil servants, seven PhDs and three MBAs.
As the support of OBCs in the upcoming elections will be vital, BJP has tried to reach out to OBCs so that it could comfortably compete with Samajwadi Party and RLD, parties that hold good control over the OBC community in the state. BJP is trying to do everything to come out of the shadow of the Brahmin-Bania outfit.
Modi has again shown his confidence in bureaucrats. Hardeep Puri, former foreign service officer, has been handling the Civil Aviation ministry since 2019. Previously he was brought in as minister with independent charge. He has been promoted to the rank of cabinet minister. He will now handle the important portfolios of Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister along with Housing & Urban Affairs Minister. However, he will continue to handle the urban affairs ministry.
Similarly, Raj Kumar Singh has been promoted as a Cabinet minister and given the critical ministries for power and new and renewable energy which have been under his charge since 2017. He retired as Union home secretary and is serving his second term in the Lok Sabha. He has won twice the Arrah seat in Bihar. Two former colleagues of Singh have also joined him.
Former IAS officers Ashwani Vaishnaw and Ram Chandra Prasad have been given important portfolios. Among them, Vaishnaw has been the talk of the town. Vaishnaw did his engineering at IIT Kanpur. He also holds an MBA degree from the US-based Wharton School. He was an Odisha cadre officer who earned a good name for his praiseworthy job during 1999 super cyclone. However, he later joined the private sector and then entered Indian politics. Despite a first-time minister, he has been given charge of major portfolios – railways, communications, and electronics and information technology. This speaks a lot about his abilities as an administrator.
Apart from former administrators, entrants from other political parties have also been given crucial portfolios. Ex-Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has been appointed civil aviation minister in recognition of his vital role during the installation of BJP government in Madhya Pradesh.
Narayan Rane is the new MSME minister. Rane was with Shiv Sena for many years before having a brief stint in the Congress. Modi has taken into consideration his experience in Maharashtra’s coastal belt. Also, he will prove helpful to take on Shiv Sena.
Among the most noteworthy transformations in the latest Cabinet reshuffle, Mansukh Mandaviya was promoted to the Cabinet rank and given charge of the health ministry. Before this, he was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Shipping and MoS for Chemicals & Fertilisers. He has succeeded Dr Harsh Vardhan. Mansukh Mandaviya has had good relations with Modi since his CM days. Dharmendra Pradhan will handle Education with Skill Development. On the other hand, Home Minister Amit Shah will have additional charge of the new Ministry of Cooperation.
Kiren Rijiju, first Cabinet Minister from Arunachal Pradesh, will handle Law and Justice after the resignation of Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad. Prasad has apparently borne the brunt due to his inefficiency in handling tech companies especially Twitter.
BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav will be the new Environment and Labour Minister replacing Mr. Gangwar. Yadav has been rewarded for his valuable role in the BJP organisation. The Ministry of External Affairs will have three Ministers of State — V. Muraleedharan and new entrants Meenakshi Lekhi and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.
With this, the government now has a record 12 Ministers belonging to the Scheduled Castes, 27 belonging to Other Backward Classes, eight Ministers belonging to the Scheduled Tribes and five Ministers belonging to minority communities, including one Muslim, one Christian, one Sikh and two Buddhists. Women ministers number at 11 in the Modi government with two Cabinet Ministers and others being Ministers of State. In the 2019 general elections, women voters emerged as a vital vote bank for the BJP. Also, they played an important role in the Bihar Assembly polls.
As per a government source, the spread of the Council of Ministers was to reflect not just marginalised sections of society but also marginalised regions like the north-east with a Minister each from Tripura [Pratima Bhowmick] and Manipur [Rajkumar Ranjan Singh], a Cabinet Minister [Virendra Kumar] from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh et al.
Similar to previous reshuffles, this one too gave a vital nod to States going to polls in the next year. Uttar Pradesh got seven ministerial berths, leading the Council of Ministers to 14. Uttarakhand saw the inclusion of Ajay Bhatt. For Punjab, the elevation of Mr. Hardeep Singh Puri to Cabinet was a nod to Sikh sentiments. Likewise, Manipur got Rajkumar Ranjan Singh in a Minister of State berth. Gujarat, which goes to polls a little later in 2022, got two Cabinet berths with Mr. Mansukh Mandaviya and Mr. Purushottam Rupala’s elevation, and a Minister of State berth for Darshana Jardosh, MP from Surat.
Have a look at the council of ministers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi:
1. Narendra Modi: Prime Minister
(Also, he will handle personnel, public grievances and pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space; all important policy issues; and all other ministries not allocated to other ministers)
CABINET MINISTERS
2. Rajnath Singh: Defence Minister
3. Amit Shah: Home Minister, Cooperation Minister
4. Nitin Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways Minister
5. Nirmala Sitharaman: Finance Minister, Corporate Affairs Minister
6. Narendra Singh Tomar: Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister
7. S Jaishankar: External Affairs Minister
8. Arjun Munda: Tribal Affairs Minister
9. Smriti Irani: Women and Child Welfare Minister
10. Piyush Goyal: Commerce & Industry Minister, Consumer Affairs Minister, Food & Public Distribution Minister, Textiles Minister
11. Dharmendra Pradhan: Education Minister, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister
12. Pralhad Joshi: Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Coal Minister, Mines Minister
13. Narayan Rane: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister
14. Sarbananda Sonowal: Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister, AYUSH Minister
15. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minority Affairs Minister
16. Dr Virendra Kumar: Social Justice and Empowerment Minister
17. Giriraj Singh: Rural Development Minister, Panchayati Raj Minister
18. Jyotiraditya Scindia: Civil Aviation Minister
19. Ramchandra Prasad Singh: Steel Minister
20. Ashwini Vaishnaw: Railways Minister, Communication Minister, Electronics & IT Minister
21. Pashu Pati Kumar Paras: Food Processing Industries Minister
22. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat: Jal Shakti Minister
23. Kiren Rijiju: Law & Justice Minister
24. Raj Kumar Singh: Power Minister, New & Renewable Energy Minister
25. Hardeep Singh Puri: Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister, Housing & Urban Affairs Minister
26. Mansukh Mandaviya: Health and Family Welfare Minister, Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister
27. Bhupender Yadav: Environment, Forest & Climate Change Minister, Labour & Employment Minister
28. Mahendra Nath Pandey: Heavy Industries Minister
29. Parshottam Rupala: Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister
30. G Kishan Reddy: Culture Minister, Tourism Minister, Minister for Development of Northeast
31. Anurag Thakur: Information & Broadcasting Minister, Sports & Youth Affairs Minister
MINISTERS OF STATE WITH INDEPENDENT CHARGE
32. Rao Inderjit Singh: Statistics and Programme Implementation, Planning, Corporate Affairs
33. Jitendra Singh: Science & Technology; Earth Sciences; Prime Minister's Office; Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space
MINISTERS OF STATE
34. Shripad Yesso Naik: Ports, Shipping and Waterways; Tourism
35. Faggansingh Kulaste: Steel, Rural Development
36. Prahalad Singh Patel: Jal Shakti, Food Processing Industries
37. Ashwini Kumar Choubey: Consumer Affairs; Food & Public Distribution; Environment, Forest & Climate Change
38. Arjun Ram Meghwal: Parliamentary Affairs, Culture
39. V K Singh: Road Transport & Highways, Civil Aviation
40. Krishan Pal: Power, Heavy Industries
41. Danve Raosaheb Dadarao: Railways, Coal, Mines
42. Ramdas Athawale: Social Justice & Empowerment
43. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti: Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Rural Development
44. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Dairying
45. Nityanand Rai: Home Affairs
46. Pankaj Choudhary: Finance
47. Anupriya Singh Patel: Commerce & Industries
48. S P Singh Baghel: Law & Justice
49. Rajeev Chandrasekhar: Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Electronics & IT
50. Shobha Karandlaje: Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare
51. Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
52. Darshana Vikram Jardosh: Textiles, Railways
53. V Muraleedharan: External Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs
54. Meenakshi Lekhi: External Affairs, Culture
55. Som Parkash: Commerce & Industry
56. Renuka Singh Saruta: Tribal Affairs
57. Rameswar Teli: Petroleum and Natural Gas, Labour and Employment
58. Kailash Choudhary: Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
59. Annpurna Devi: Education
60. A Narayanaswamy: Social Justice and Empowerment
61. Kaushal Kishore: Housing and Urban Affairs
62. Ajay Bhatt: Defence, Tourism
63. B L Verma: Development of North Eastern Region, Cooperation
64. Ajay Kumar: Home Affairs
65. Devusinh Chauhan: Communications
66. Bhagwanth Khuba: New and Renewable Energy, Chemicals and Fertilisers
67. Kapil Moreshwar Patil: Panchayati Raj
68. Pratima Bhoumik: Social Justice and Empowerment
69. Subhas Sarkar: Education
70. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad: Finance
71. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh: External Affairs, Education
72. Bharati Pravin Pawar: Health and Family Welfare
73. Bishweswar Tudu: Tribal Affairs, Jal Shakti
74. Shantanu Thakur: Ports, Shipping and Waterways
75. Munjapara Mahendrabhai: Women and Child Development, AYUSH
76. John Barla: Minority Affairs
77. L Murugan: Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Information and Broadcasting
78. Nisith Pramanik: Home Affairs, Youth Affairs and Sports
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