Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressed a 'reset' button with his cabinet expansion. He dropped 12 ministers from his team, and brought in several new faces to helm the top ministries. The focus will be on improving governance in the remaining tenure of NDA government—the earlier part of which was marred by pandemic—as more technocrats have been brought in as cabinet ministers.
Politically, the expansion has kept the upcoming assembly elections in mind, while also balancing power in states marred by infighting in the party units.
This 'reset' has come with the PM giving space to several new leaders who owe their rise to Modi-Shah era.
The cabinet expansion has a distinct messaging—the government is focused on wooing Dalits, tribals, OBCs and women as the number of ministers representing these groups has increased substantially. There are 12 SC ministers, including two cabinet, eight scheduled tribes ministers, 27 OBC ministers an 11 women ministers. Modi inducted allies from JD(U), Apna Dal, LJP to give a larger message of political engagement.
In government’s own words, the new cabinet is a “government for growth.”
On Wednesday, 15 cabinet ministers, and 28 ministers of state took oath at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Prime Minister Modi surprised everyone by dropping health minister Harsh Vardhan, chemicals minister Sadananda Gowda, the two key ministers who had a major role to play during the COVID-19 management. By dropping Harsh Vardhan, the government has signaled that COVID-19 mismanagement was his fault.
Dropping of IT and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and I&B and environment minister Prakash Javadekar suggest that these were the areas marred by controversies and needed a fresh look. Similarly, shutting out of Ramesh Pokhriyal has education minister apparently had to do with slow progress in implementation of the new education policy, while Santosh Gangwar’s exclusion appeared to be linked with criticism over handling of the migrant crisis, and new labour codes.
As Modi brought in new faces in the cabinet, it is meant to enthuse people, and give a sense of makeover. Among the 15 new cabinet ministers inducted, seven are those promoted, including Hardeep Puri, R.K. Singh, Anurag Thakur, Kiren Rijiju, Parshottam Rupala, G. Kishan Reddy and Mansukhani Mandavia.
The interesting change is the induction of technocrats as cabinet ministers. In addition to S. Jaishankar in cabinet, Hardeep Puri, R.K. Singh, Ramchandra Prasad Singh, Ashwini Vaishnav are former bureaucrats-turned-politicians who will be looked upon to get the work done, and policies implemented.
Other new inductions as cabinet ministers are Jyotiraditya Scindia, who switched sides to join BJP from Congress, and was also instrumental in bringing down Kamal Nath government in Mahya Pradesh. Former Maharashtra CM Narayan Rane, Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, seven-time Lok Sabha MP and Dalit leader Virendra Kumar, BJP general secretary and trouble shooter Bhupender Yadav have made to the cabinet. From the ally quota, Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother Pashupati Nath Paras has been made a cabinet minister.
The choice of 28 ministers of state made clear the message that the focus has been on the election-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Manipur. Modi included four MPs from West Bengal, Karnataka, Tripura which have been witnessing bickering in the state units.
As Harsh Vardhan got dropped, Meenakshi Lekhi, an MP from Delhi has been made MoS. The key inclusions as MoS include Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Anupriya Patel from Apna Dal, OBC leader S.P. Singh Baghel, and Yediyurappa acolyte Shobha Karandlaje.
Party rewarded L. Murugan Tamal, Naidu state president of the BJP, for party’s good show in the recent elections. Even among the MoS there are several lawyers, doctors, teachers, thus giving a refreshing look to the council of ministers.
