New Delhi | Ramakant Chaudhary: Whether it was demonetisation in November 2016 or abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 or clamping national lockdown in March 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always shown penchant for suddenness of things which have stumped out media prediction and calculations of political pundits. So, this time the Cabinet reshuffle too has gone the same way, first of its kind in the political history of Independent India. The Cabinet rejig is not merely filling the vacancies rather it is a complete ministerial makeover for dealing with poll politics in the face of coming state elections as well as 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It has apparently given as sense of political optics that the ministerial makeover is all set to handle the sagging image of the Modi government owing to the Corona pandemic, and make public perceptions that PM’s new team is exuberant and enthusiast to accomplish the tasks of maximum purposeful governance with efficient implementations of policies.
The image of Brand Modi was badly eroded when the Covid second wave hit the country badly. A significant number of patients reportedly died gasping for breath in their homes or wanting a hospital bed and essential supplies such as oxygen and medicines. People were visibly disenchanted with the Modi government as they sensed lack of government preparedness for tackling the Covid pandemic. Former health minister Harsh Vardhan also made some gaffes delivering statements without scientific knowledge. In March 2021, he said that India was in the endgame of Covid pandemic. The survey showed that the high popularity rating of the Modi government enjoyed for the last seven years dissipated. In all this chaos and crisis that dented the image of the Brand Modi, accountability had to be fixed so the final nail in the coffin of Harsh Vardhan was inevitable.
Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was removed because his tussle with social media giants, especially Twitter, created unnecessary controversies for the government. Social media was flooded with lots of negative comments. Prasad himself remained in news but he could not settle the matter that also gave the Opposition occasion to corner the government. While Silicon Valley Tech Company dilly-dallied complying with the revised IT laws, Prasad apparently looked content on issuing warnings, dithering to take strict and strong action on the violating company.
With questions being raised and the government’s handling of the second wave coming under scrutiny, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry under Prakash Javadekar could not blunt the criticism raised by domestic and international media. He also came under the spotlight after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) brought in amendments to the Information Technology rules in February this year. Javadekar’s stint in the Environment Ministry also faced controversies when fierce public protests erupted on the draft environment impact assessment policy. So the sledgehammer was brought on Javadekar.
Ramesh Pokhriyal was axed from the post of Education Minister for the confusion that prevails in the education sector, while he officially cited ill-health for his resignation, as he had spent over a month at the All India Institute of Medical sciences recovering from coronavirus disease. Ramesh Pokhriyal was also perceived as someone who was not quick to take decisions. Implementation of the new education policy requires lots of work. The government faced criticism owing to the Education Ministry’s incoherent approach of handling board examinations. The government wanted Delhi University to adopt the Central Universities Common Entrance Test, which is used by 15 central varsities, but the Education Ministry could not give clearance. Other than that, there are a whole host of universities across the country that are operating without a Vice-Chancellor as the former education minister could not work on that.
In all PM Modi dropped as many as 12 ministers from his council, including six big-ticket Cabinet ministers, in a clear-cut message that the Central government has zero tolerance for any controversies which could damage poll prospects of BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. There are 36 new faces inducted in the Cabinet expansion. In the new 77-member council, only 30 Cabinet rank and two ministers of state with independent charge will manage all Union ministries as the government wants to enhance synergies between departments. Since 1990, this has been the third largest council of ministers. The record is 80 (the maximum number is allowed excluding PM) during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and Manmohand Singh regime.
In his biggest Cabinet rejig, the Prime Minister has tried to represent every state of India as well as different castes, particularly OBCs, Dalits and Tribals. There are now 27 OBC ministers out of 77 in Team Modi, in an effort of making saffron canvas bigger with the Mandalisation of the BJP and discarding the tag of Brahmin-Bania outfit. There are 12 Scheduled Castes and eight Scheduled Tribes in the council of ministers. The rainbow caste colour of Cabinet is aiming at the consolidation of BJP’s footprints in not only the election bound states but also in states where the party is struggling to expand its base. For the first time, there are 11 women ministers in the government. It is a young ministry, the average age being 58 years. In running ministerial offices efficiently, Prime Minister Modi is known to favour former bureaucrats, professionals and experts more than old-school professional politicians.
The Atal-Advani era in BJP came to a close when Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. In 2019, the saffron landscape dominated by “Gen X leaders” also came to an end as Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar passed away. Venkaiah Naidu became the Vice-President. Now there are only a handful of leaders left in government from the “old school of BJP” such as Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari.
(Ramakant Chaudhary is a political-social commentator and journalist who has worked with The Times of India, Hindustan Times (Mint), Dainik Jagran Group, The Pioneer and The Political and Business Daily. The views expressed are personal.)
