Voice from the Rooftop

On 16/6/2019 28 products from USA came under tariffs or higher customs duty in India. This was in retaliation against American tariffs on Indian aluminium and steel since some months and ending Generalised System of Preferences on 5/6/2019.
For too long USA has dictated to India and India has meekly surrendered. Don’t buy oil from Iran. Don’t buy oil from Venezuela. Don’t buy missiles from Russia. Such commands keep coming from USA.
USA has friends and enemies. Against enemies it has sanctions. Against friends it has tariffs. It has trade wars going on with many countries. China is its main target.
For too long countries appeased USA like UK appeased Germany before World War II. Russia and China should have resisted US sanctions on North Korea through UN. They did not do it.
Donald Trump has mentioned Harley Davidson bikes many times. India had 100% tariff on them. India reduced them to 50%. Trump wants no tariff. Some say few Harley Davidson bikes are imported. Zero tariff will not make much difference. With zero tariff, import of Harley Davidson bikes may go up substantially.
USA views India as tariff king. USA’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had come to India in early May 2019 and had warned of consequences if India imposed retaliatory tariffs. If USA gets nasty, India should get nastier. USA will know India is a pushover. India can do without almonds, apples, walnuts and such things from USA. India can stop buying oil, arms, war planes from USA.
China views USA’s trade and tariff policy as naked economic terrorism. Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested on 1/12/2018 in Vancouver, Canada for extradition to USA. China arrested two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. They face espionage charges. If Meng is extradited to USA, Canadians can be executed. USA does not want any country to do business with Huawei, accusing it of spying. It is USA that spies on other countries excluding UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Edward Snowden had exposed US spying.
India should be ready for all eventualities including arrests of its citizens in USA and other countries for extradition to USA.

On 6/6/2019 when an official release was issued about cabinet committees, Rajnath Singh was only on 2 committees –Cabinet Committee on Security and Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. Amit Shah was on 8 committees. In 16 hours Rajnath Singh was on 4 more committees: Political Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, Investment and Growth, and Employment and Skill Development. In all six committees Singh was No. 2, Narendra Modi being No. 1. Amit Shah who was No. 2 became No. 3.
As per Indian Express first release was at 5.57 a.m., second at 10.19 p.m.
In previous government Rajnath Singh was Home Minister. Amit Shah was not a minister. In present government Rajnath Singh is Defence Minister, Amit Shah is Home Minister. During the swearing-in on 30/5/2019 Rajnath Singh had taken oath after Modi and Amit Shah had taken oath after Rajnath Singh.
Something happened between 30/5/2019 and 6/6/2019. Home Minister Amit Shah presided over a meeting at Home Ministry with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar. Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, and Dharmendra Pradhan were in previous government and are senior to Amit Shah. Piyush Goyal was also Finance Minister during the absence of Arun Jaitley. S. Jaishankar as Foreign Minister holds an important portfolio. People interpreted this meeting as Amit Shah being de facto Deputy Prime Minister.
Amit Shah is BJP President. He was Rajya Sabha member. He won Lok Sabha election from Gandhi Nagar and resigned from Rajya Sabha. Rajnath Singh was BJP President and CM of UP. Amit Shah was not CM.
Rajnath Singh’s office denied that he had threated to quit the cabinet. It is said that he had protested to RSS about the slight and RSS had intervened. If that is the case, it means Narendra Modi is beholden to RSS and there are limits on his power. Whatever may be, Amit Shah’s rise would have been resented by senior ministers. JD(U) had refused symbolic representation in Modi cabinet and Rajnath Singh’s resignation or disgruntlement would have been a bad beginning for Modi’s second term as PM.

On 30/5/2019 at 7 p.m. Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister and after him 57 others took oaths as ministers. Swearing-in ended at 9.04 p.m. Some BJP allies got one ministry each. JD(U) refused to be part of cabinet as it did not get more than one ministry. Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj were not in the ministry for health reasons. Others who were in previous cabinet were missing for different reasons. There were new entries.
Maneka Gandhi, Uma Bharti, Jayant Sinha, Suresh Prabhu, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Jagat Prakash Nadda, K. J. Alphons and some others were out. Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal was out. She was Minister of State in Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
It is reported that K. C. Tyagi of JD(U) had met Amit Shah and demanded that NDA should have a convener and an office as it was during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s time. George Fernandes was convenor during Vajpayee’s time. When Vajpayee was PM, BJP did not have a majority of its own. It needed allies. In 1999 AIADMK pulled out of alliance and government fell. Modi did not need allies after he won in 2014 and BJP had 282 seats. This time BJP has 303 seats. Nitish Kumar is unreliable. He can switch sides. He said JD(U)wanted proportional representation in cabinet, BJP offered symbolic representation.
Rajnath Singh is Defence Minister. He was Home Minister.
Amit Shah is in the cabinet. He is Home Minister. Successful as BJP President. BJP recovered in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh after losing state elections. Gained in Karnataka, West Bengal and Orissa.
Nirmala Sitharaman is Finance Minister. She was Defence Minister. There was speculation that Piyush Goyal will be Finance Minister.
S. Jaishankar is External Affairs Minister as expected.
Piyush Goyal is Railways and Commerce and Industries Minister.
Pralhad Joshi gets Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines.
Arvind Sawant from Shiv Sena is Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise. Previous minister was Anant Geete of Shiv Sena who lost Lok Sabha election.
Kiren Rijiju is Minister of State with Independent Charge of Youth Affairs and Sports and also MoS Minority Affairs. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was MoS with Independent Charge of Youth Affairs and Sports.
General (Retd) Vijay Kumar Singh is shifted to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways as MoS. He was MoS External Affairs.
Babul Supriyo is MoS – Environment, Forest and Climate Change. He was MoS – Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise.
Anurag Thakur is MoS – Finance and Corporate Affairs. He is fourth time MP. He was BCCI President for some months.
Hardeep Singh Puri as MoS with Independent Charge has Civil Aviation in addition to previously held Housing and Urban Affairs.
Not much change in portfolios of other ministers who were in previous government.
The Council of Minister consists of Prime Minister, 24 Cabinet Ministers, 9 Ministers of State with Independent Charge and 24 Ministers of State.
Someone from BJP will be Speaker. Deputy Speaker may be from a non-NDA party.