July 24, Kathmandu. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reshuffled his cabinet for the first time since becoming prime minister for a second term in May 2019.
Modi has reshuffled his cabinet to improve the government's performance, especially after the government was widely criticized for failing to manage the second wave of Kovid. Thirty-six new ministers have been sworn in, 12 have been removed and seven have been promoted.
In the cabinet expansion, he has given priority to the leaders from the youth and backward classes, which has made the cabinet expansion more inclusive.
With the new cabinet expansion, the average age of ministers has dropped to 58 from 61 before the restructuring. Fourteen ministers are under 50 years of age and three ministers are under 40 years of age. For a few months now, Modi has been saying that he has been trying to bring in young and visionary leaders as ministers.
Similarly, while forming the new cabinet, Modi has given special priority to subject matter expertise and administrative experience. He has brought a person with long experience of working in the related field in the cabinet. The ministers have been selected based on expertise and administrative experience, with the conclusion that a person who was a minister before could not work well due to a lack of administrative and subject matter expertise.
Most of the members of the Council of Ministers have worked in the related field for a long time. In the 77-member cabinet, including ministers and ministers of state, 13 lawyers, six doctors, five engineers, seven former government employees and seven have received doctorates. He has studied at the world's largest universities and has received higher education from various Indian universities.
Similarly, the cabinet has been made more inclusive than before. Backward class leaders have been brought into the cabinet. There are 27 ministers from the backward community. They represent 15 different states. Similarly, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Christian communities are also represented in the cabinet. At the same time, the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party have said that they will implement inclusion in the true sense. BJP MP Vijay Sonkar Shastri said, "We are implementing what we say. We have expanded the cabinet following the principle of minority as defined by the constitution. ”
He said that with the expansion of the cabinet, the BJP wants to move forward with all sections and with confidence. There are only 11 women in the cabinet.
The expansion of the cabinet has also targeted the upcoming assembly elections. Now more ministers have been made from the state to be elected. For example, seven of the 36 newcomers are from Uttar Pradesh. Assembly elections are being held in Uttar Pradesh next year. Similarly, Gujarat has more ministers than other states.
Despite some political gains and losses in the cabinet expansion, Modi has come to the conclusion of a cabinet reshuffle after a long workout and a serious review of the ministers. Ministers are evaluated at various levels. On top of that, the cabinet has been reshuffled in the middle of Modi's second term.
The evaluation of the ministers was started in September last year. Not only the Prime Minister's Office but also the BJP had evaluated the ministers.
The overall policy and program of the government are centred on how much work the ministry has done, how much progress has been made in the master plan and program and what programs have been brought with new thinking.
Not only this but it is also seen how much the ministers are using social media to spread their programs among the people and how much they are directly connected with the people through it. In the cabinet reshuffle, important ministries like home, defence, finance and foreign ministries have been given continuity.
However, high-profile health minister Harsh Bardhan has been removed. Especially in the second wave of Corona, he was criticized for not playing a good role. Another senior minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, has also been removed. The cabinet has been expanded amid criticism of the government's failure to properly manage the Corona epidemic, a slowdown in the economy and rising unemployment.
