On 5/7/2016 there was Modi cabinet reshuffle. There were 19 new ministers, five were dropped, portfolios of many changed. There was one promotion to cabinet rank.
Modi on the previous day had said it was an expansion. This was more than an expansion. Changes in portfolios led to discussions. Some said it was a night of short knives. As news of portfolios spread there was excitement.
News of shifting of Smriti Irani from HRD to textiles was greeted with glee by many. Ramachandra Guha said she combined ignorance with arrogance.
Promotion of Prakash Javadekar to cabinet rank and as HRD ministers was welcomed by many. He was Minister of State for Environment and Forests with independent charge. Maneka Gandhi had attacked him for permitting killing of blue bulls (nilgais) and some other animals. Now he is equal to Maneka Gandhi.
There was speculation about Arun Jaitley losing his importance. He lost Information & Broadcasting and did not get anything in return. He continues to be Finance Minister and Corporate Affairs Minister. CBFC was in the news for the wrong reasons. Chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani had angered many in the film industry due to cuts in various films. It is said in 2014 Arun Jaitley had a say in cabinet formation. He, Modi and Amit Shah had decided the cabinet. This time it was Modi and Amit Shah. Subramnian Swamy had attacked Arun Jaitley and his subordinates.
Ravi Shankar Prasad got Law and Justice which he had held when he was in Vajpayee cabinet and lost Communications.
Vijay Kumar Singh has Mobashar Jawed Akbar as colleague in External Affairs Ministry. Singh wanted Akbar Road as Maharana Pratap Road. Now M. J. Akbar is his colleague. Singh lost independent charge of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Devaragunda Venkappa Sadananda Gowda lost Law and Justice. He now has Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu got Information & Broadcasting and lost Parliamentary Affairs. He retains Urban Development.
Rajiv Pratap Rudy, MoS, lost Parliamentary Affairs.
Ananth Kumar got Parliamentary Affairs, retained Chemicals & Fertilizers.
Santosh Gangwar lost independent charge of Textiles, moved as MoS to Finance.
Jayant Sinha was shifted from Finance to Civil Aviation. Some think it was because of his father Yashwant Sinha’s criticism of Modi.
Vijay Goel is Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs. It should have been Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. He is an Olympic silver medallist.
Mansukhbhai Vasava, Mohan Kundariya, Nihal Chand Meghwal, Ram Shankar Katheira, and Sanwar Lal Jat were dropped.
Shiv Sena said it was BJP cabinet expansion. Two were from allies. They were Anupriya Patel from Apna Dal and Ramdas Athawale from RPI.
It seems some were made ministers with a view to UP elections next year.
Some panellists accused some ministers of self-promotion. That is a strange accusation. Politics is for power. Self-promotion is natural for a politician.
Some commented on Amit Shah sitting next to Modi during swearing-in. They said party president sitting next to PM is breach of protocol and it did not happen during Vajpayee’s time. They forgot Sonia Gandhi used to sit in the front row even when she was not Congress President during P. V Narasimha Rao’s time and later as Congress President during Manmohan Singh’s time.
It is back to square one. It is good bye to change, development, minimum government, maximum governance. Modi began with 45 ministers in May 2014. The number went up to 66 in November 2014. Now we have 78 ministers.
