Prime Minister Narendra Modi pressed the refresh button as he inducted in his council 25 Cabinet ministers and 33 ministers of state at a glittering ceremony. He inducted 20 new faces, rewarding giant killers in the election but also omitting the most visible faces of his team. While Arun Jaitley’s omission had become public on Wednesday, the absence of Sushma Swaraj came as a surprise. The prime minister described the mix as a blend of youthful energy and administrative experience. The tallest among the first-time ministers is party president Amit Shah. After intense speculation, Shah – who scripted the magnificent NDA victory – is assuming a pre-eminent position in the new Modi dispensation. With that, he can shed his behind the scene persona of a strategist and leave his imprint on the government as the obvious Number 2.
Shah’s induction came on the heels of speculation that he would like to continue as party president. Interestingly, sensitivities were kept in mind and Shah was third in the pecking order of those who took oath — after Modi and Rajnath Singh, but ahead of former party chief Nitin Gadkari. They were followed by the surprise pick, former foreign secretary S Jaishankar, who will have a key role to play as Swaraj has been omitted, ostensibly because she did not contest on health grounds. However, the buzz is that she would have preferred to have continued. The exit of Jaitley and Swaraj has left two critical vacancies. Shah is expected to handle one of the big ministries. Many believe Jaishankar may land the foreign ministry portfolio.
Among allies, the notable inclusion in Cabinet was Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena, who defeated Milind Deora of the Congress in South Mumbai. The five-time MP from Jalna –Raosaheb Danve – has been also inducted. But there was an omission from Maharashtra – Suresh Prabhu — who was seen as the “to go” man handling key ministries. Nitin Gadkari, who was handling a host of portfolios in the previous dispensations, is likely to get a key ministry. Whether Shah will also continue as party president remains to be seen. However, the omission of J P Nadda, the former Health Minister, is seen as a signal that he may take over as party president. Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman and Prakash Javadekar were among the other ministers who were sworn in. An announcement on portfolios is awaited.
Ram Vilas Paswan, DV Sadananda Gowda, Narendra Singh Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Harsh Vardhan, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Muqtar Abbas Naqvi were among those who got a second chance. Giriraj Singh, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Sripad Yaso Naik, Jitender Singh, Kiren Rijiju, Mansukh Mandavia, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Krishan Pal Gurjar, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Purshottam Rupala, Ramdas Athavale and Babul Supriyo, were among the ministers of state in the previous government who have been retained in the new council. Hardeep Puri was re-inducted into Modi’s council of ministers despite losing the Lok Sabha polls. In attendance – watching the spectacle — were leaders from the BIMSTEC countries, opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, chief ministers, corporate honchos and film stars.
ALL YOUR SEVAKS
1 Narendra Modi
2 Amit Shah
3 Rajnath Singh
4 Nitin Gadkari
5 Sadananda Gowda
6 Nirmala Sitharaman
7 Ram Vilas Paswan
8 Narendra Singh Tomar
9 Ravi Shankar Prasad
10 Harsimrat Kaur Badal
11 S Jaishankar
12 Ramesh Nishank Pokhriyal
13 Thawar Chand Gahlot
14 Arjun Munda
15 Smriti Irani
16 Harsh Vardhan
17 Prakash Javadekar
18 Piyush Goyal
19 Dharmendra Pradhan
20 Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
21 Pralhad Joshi
22 Mahendra Nath Pandey
23 Arvind Sawant
24 Giriraj Singh
25 Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
26 Santosh Gangwar
27 Rao Indrajit Singh
28 Shreepad Nayak
29 Jitendra Singh
30 Kiren Rijiju
31 Prahlad Singh Patel
32 RK Singh
33 Hardeep Singh Puri
34 Mansukh Mandaviya
35 Faggan Singh Kulaste
36 Ashwini Chaubey
37 Gen (retd) VK Singh
38 Kishan Pal Gujjar
39 Danve Raosaheb Dadarao
40 G. Kishan Reddy
41 Parshottam Rupala
42 Ramdas Athawale
43 Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti
44 Babul Supriyo
45 Sanjeev Kumar Balyan
46 Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao
47 Anurag Singh Thakur
48 Angadi Suresh Channabasappa
49 Nityanand Rai
50 V Muraleedharan
51 Renuka Singh Saruta
52 Som Parkash
53 Rameswar Teli
54 Pratap Chandra Sarangi
55 Kailash Choudhary
56 Debasree Chaudhuri
57 Arjun Ram Meghwal
58 Rattan Lal Kataria
THOSE OMITTED
They were part of the first Modi government but
will not feature in the Union cabinet anymore.
Sushma Swaraj • Manoj Sinha • Mahesh
Sharma • Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore • Arun
Jaitley • KJ Alphons • Hansraj Ahir • Maneka
Gandhi • Radha Mohan Singh • Suresh
Prabhu • Anant Geete and Uma Bharti
FIRST TIMERS
Amit Shah • Rattan Lal Kataria • Ramesh
Pokhriyal Nishank • RCP Singh • G Kishan
Reddy • Suresh Angadi • Kailash Choudhary
Pralhad Joshi • Som Parkash • Rameshwar
Teli•Subrat Pathak • Deboshree Choudhury
Rita Bahuguna Joshi •S Jaishankar
ONLY 3 WOMEN THIS TIME
Among the 24 cabinet ministers, who took the oath of office, only three are women. In the previous Modi dispensation, seven women served as cabinet ministers. Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman and Harsimrat Kaur Badal will be the only three female cabinet ministers in the government’s second stint. While Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to retain the defence portfolio, the Modi government’s cabinet berth picks for Smriti Irani and Harsimrat Kaur Badal are still unknown.
ENDS PLEDGE WITH BHARAT MATA KI…
G. Kishan Reddy, who was sworn in as Minister of State, deviated from the text and ended his pledge with “Bharat Mata ki Jai” (Hail Mother India). All other ministers followed the text and did not digress. Hundreds of BJP supporters who had been invited for the oath taking ceremony chanted “Har Har Mahadev” when Narendra Modi made his appearance
BEEF SERVED ON HACKED BJP SITE
The website of the Delhi wing of BJP has been hacked. The hackers replaced several pages of the website with recipes of beef dishes, accompanied with the message: Hacked by ‘Shadow_V1P3R’. On the homepage, the navigation bar has been edited to replace word BJP with the word BEEF. For example, About BJP has been edited to About BEEF, BJP History has been changed to BEEF History. Rest of the contents of the homepage remain untouched.
