Prime minister Narendra Modi has effected changes in his cabinet on account of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley' s kidney transplant which will have him confined to his house for some months. Though minor the reshuffle is, Modi has sent out clear message on how he rates the performance of his colleagues.
Railways and coal minister, Piyush Goyal will be in charge of Finance till Jaitley returns. Goyal's performance earlier as the power minister led to his "promotion", getting him the coveted and important railways portfolio. But stepping into Jaitley's shoes, albeit temporarily, can easily be read as Modi awarding him a 'distinction' card. Goyal will also hold the charge of corporate affairs.
The crucial Information and Broadcast portfolio, hitherto with Smriti Irani, goes to Rajyavardhan Rathore, till now the junior minister under Irani, who will now have to contend with the textiles portfolio alone.
Irani had recently faced flak from the prime minister when she formed a committee to regulate accredited media to weed out what she called, fake news reporters. The PMO stepped in to rescind that, cutting Irani to size almost.
The recent showdown at the National Film Awards function, resulting in many winners protesting and boycotting the event, is also attributed to Irani's mishandling of it. The I&B ministry had led the winners to believe they will all receive their awards from President Rajnath Kovind, while the Rashtrapati Bhavan had made it clear he would not do that, almost a month before the awards function.
Alphons Kannanthanam, will be relieved of the charge of minister of state in the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology as S.S. Ahluwalia, has been assigned the portfolio. Ahluwalia has been relieved of the charge of Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation.