Cabinet Reshuffle: 36 new ministers are joining the government and seven will get promotions.
New Delhi:
Thirty-six new ministers joined the government and four high-profile ministers quit today in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mega cabinet reshuffle, aimed at a reboot to offset heavy criticism over Covid and the economy.
PM Modi now has 77 ministers, nearly half of them new and seven ministers up for promotions.
But the exits of IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar stood out on a day resignations made bigger news than new ministers.
Harsh Vardhan’s sacking follows months of firefighting as the second surge of Covid engulfed the nation, exposing its inadequate health infrastructure.
Mr Javadekar was among the chief spokespersons of the government, a role he had performed for years. But Ravi Shankar Prasad’s resignation was the most shocking of all.
A veteran BJP leader, Mr Prasad, like Mr Javadekar, is among the few who were ministers even in the previous BJP government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Mr Prasad’s last few months in the IT ministry were taken up by a relentless back-and-forth with Twitter over a range of issues, including new IT rules.
All three were seen at the oath ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan this evening.
The government said “20 per cent” ministers – a fifth of the council of ministers — had been dropped and the message was performance-linked.
The vacancies in major ministries signal a shake-up that could see ministers shedding extra portfolios and some being downgraded. The Big Four, however, are unlikely to be affected – the Ministers of Home, Defence, Foreign Affairs and Finance.
Narayan Rane, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sarbananda Sonowal are likely to get cabinet ministries.
Bhupendra Yadav and Meenakshi Lekhi also joined the government. Seven new ministers are from Uttar Pradesh, which will elect a new government next year.
Kiren Rijiju, Anurag Thakur, Hardeep Singh Puri, Purshottam Rupala, Manush Mandavya and GK Reddy are set to be promoted to the cabinet.
Junior Health Minister Ashwini Choube, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Babul Supriyo, Sadananda Gowda and Santosh Gangwar have also resigned.
