Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s major cabinet revamp today saw 43 new ministers join the government and four high-profile ministers resign, as the country emerges from a severe second round of Covid ahead of critical elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi now has 77 ministers, about half of whom are new. 15 new cabinet ministers include Anurag Thakur and Hardeep Puri.
Cabinet ministers Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Narayan Rane, Bhupender Yadav, and Ashwini Vaishnaw were also sworn in.
On a day when resignations outnumbered new ministers, the departures of IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar stood out.
Harsh Vardhan’s dismissal comes after months of firefighting as the second Covid outbreak swept the country, exposing the country’s woeful health infrastructure. Cities ran out of oxygen, and images of bodies floating in rivers and burning pyres at crematoriums became defining images of an unprecedented national crisis.
Mr. Javadekar was one of the government’s top spokespersons, a position he has held for years.
Ravi Shankar Prasad’s departure came as a surprise because he was a key member of the government’s troubleshooting team.
Mr. Prasad, like Mr. Javadekar, is a seasoned BJP leader who served as a minister in the previous BJP government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Mr. Prasad’s last months as IT minister were consumed with a court battle with social media behemoths like Twitter and Facebook, particularly a never-ending back-and-forth with Twitter over new IT laws.
All three were present for this evening’s swearing ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The administration said that “20 percent” of ministers, or one-fifth of the council of ministers, had been removed, and that the message was connected to performance.
The vacancies in important ministries foreshadow a shake-up in which ministers may lose further responsibilities and some may be demoted. The Big Four – the Ministers of Home, Defence, Foreign Affairs, and Finance – are unlikely to be affected.
Meenakshi Lekhi and Bhupendra Yadav have also joined the government. Uttar Pradesh, which will elect a new government next year, has seven new ministers.
Elections will be conducted in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur, in addition to Uttar Pradesh, India’s most politically important state. Except for Punjab, where Congress is in power, the BJP controls all of the states. Winning UP is a critical test for the BJP ahead of the national election in 2024.
