With Prime Minister Narendra Modi bringing in a major overhaul of the Union cabinet, two of THE WEEK’s columnists—Jyotiraditya Scindia and Meenakshi Lekhi—are among the newly-inducted ministers. While Scindia has been appointed Civil Aviation Minister, Lekhi has been handed the portfolios of Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs and Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture.
Lekhi, an MP from New Delhi and the BJP's national spokesperson, writes the column 'Forthwrite' in the magazine where she expresses opinions on a range of subjects including the Modi government’s policies and women's rights. She has been THE WEEK’s columnist since November 2015. In her latest column, Lekhi said that despite multiple roadblocks, the Modi government’s vaccination policy has been a success. She also accused the Congress of playing a ‘significant role in creating vaccine hesitancy in Indians’.
Scindia resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP in March 2020. In THE WEEK’s column ‘Scin-Thesis’, which he began writing in January this year, he has talked about the pandemic, and implementation of policies in various sectors. In his latest column, Scindia addressed the debate around social media companies and the new IT rules in the country. He wrote: “Fostering a space online that is truly democratic, and serves as an effective tool for freedom of speech, requires both sides to draw a delicate balance. However, digital companies cannot afford to defy the laws of the land.”