 "Vijay Goel")
Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament scheduled to start later this month, PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday inducted 19 new ministers into the Council of Ministers. Government sources said the move will strengthen the Modi-led team with “experience, expertise and energy”.
Current environment minister Prakash Javadekar, who was at the minister of state level, was elevated to Cabinet minister rank. The rest have been sworn in as ministers of state.
Five ministers were also dropped from the Union Council of Ministers, according to government sources.
The five minister are - Minister of State for Human Resource Development Ram Shankar Katheria, Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sanwar Lal Jat, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Mansukhbhai D Vasava, Ministers of State for Agriculture M K Kundariya, and Minister of State for Panchayati Raj Nihal Chand.
Sources said the PM laid down the selection procedure “to bring in doers and performers who would deliver on his vision of development and good governance, and further his central priority of gaon (villages), garib (poor) and kisan (farmers). “New ministers were identified from various walks of life to bring to bear their unique rich experience and expertise to their office,” sources said.
The list has several who are OBCs, five Dalits, two from minority communities and two women. The 19 have been drawn from 10 states. However, several of the new ministers are in their 60s and have been brought in primarily to ensure the delivery of promises the government has made in its three budgets and the BJP manifesto.
Let's take a look at the new ministers in Modi cabinet:
SS Ahluwalia
It was just four years back that Surendrajit Singh Ahluwalia had thought his political career of nearly four decades was over. In an emotional farewell speech in the Rajya Sabha in 2012, Ahluwalia said he would be spending the rest of his days at his home in Patna.
It was an emotional speech for the four-time Rajya Sabha MP. Ahluwalia was visibly hurt that his party, the BJP, has refused to re-nominate. The reason was the differences between two senior party leaders – the then party president Nitin Gadkari and the then Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj. Ahluwalia was considered close to the LK Advani and Swaraj camp.
He was then the deputy leader of BJP in the Rajya Sabha. In his farewell speech, Ahluwalia thanked not just his leader in the House Arun Jaitley but also former PM Rajiv Gandhi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Ahluwalia had started his public life as a student leader in West Bengal. In 1986, Rajiv sent him to the Rajya Sabha. In the Upper House, he was part of Rajiv’s “shouting brigade”. Ahluwalia and others like Suresh Pachauri would take it upon themselves to shout down any opposition member who ventured to criticize the Gandhis.
Ahluwalia remained a Sonia loyalist after Rajiv was assassinated. But her unwillingness to join active politics made him throw his lot with the then PM PV Narasimha Rao, joining his council of ministers in 1995. But the Congress under Sitaram Kesri didn’t show any signs of revival. Ahluwalia joined the BJP in 2000.
His fortunes looked up in 2014 when he was given the party ticket to contest from Darjeeling, after veteran Jaswant Singh insisted that he will contest not from his then seat that had sent him to Lok Sabha in 2009 but from Rajasthan.
2) Ramesh Chandappa Jigjinagi, 64, Lok Sabha MP from Bijapur (Karnataka)
Jigjinagi, a Dalit, was the junior minister for home in Ramakrishna Hegde-led Janata Party government in Karnataka in 1983. He handled important portfolios in Janata governments in his state in the mid-1990s. He remained a Hegde loyalist, even quitting Janata Dal to join his leader's new party – the Rashtriya Navanirmal Vedike. He joined the BJP after Hegde passed away. Jigjinagi is a five term MP and three term MLA. He describes himself as an agriculturist, musician, trader and industrialist. Jigjinagi’s was one of the four names that Karnataka BJP had recommended for ministerial berth in the Modi cabinet in May 2014.
3) Parshottam Rupala, 61, Rajya Sabha (Gujarat)
Rupala is considered close to Prime Minister Modi. He was a cabinet minister for agriculture when Modi was the CM of Gujarat. Rupala is a three term legislator and has long experience of handling several portfolios. This is his second term as a Rajya Sabha member. Rupala’s shift to Delhi would have state CM Anandiben Patel breathe easy.
MJ Akbar
Mobashar Jawed Akbar is one of the most well known names in journalism. He was the editor of the Sunday magazine at a young age of 25, and later also edited The Telegraph and The Asian Age. Akbar was part of former Rajiv Gandhi’s inner circle and was elected from Kishanganj in Bihar on a Congress ticket in 1989. Akbar has written several books, including ‘Riot after Riot’ and a biography of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. An avowed Nehruvian, Akbar joined the BJP before the 2014 elections as the party’s spokesperson.
5) Arjun Ram Meghwal, 65, Lok Sabha MP from Bikaner (Rajasthan)
Meghwal, currently the BJP chief whip in the Lok Sabha, is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer of the Rajasthan cadre and a second term MP. Meghwal is a dalit. He has raised the issue of manual scavenging persistently. He is also a passionate crusader for increased use of local languages, and has campaigned for inclusion of the Rajasthani language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. He has also initiated debate about allowing lawyers to argue in Hindi in High Courts and the Supreme Court. Meghwal is also a vocalist.
6) Anil Madhav Dave, 59, Rajya Sabha, Madhya Pradesh
Dave turns 60 on Wednesday. He is an environmentalist, having written several books on the subject. Dave earned much praise as the head of the Parliamentary committee on the Real Estate Bill. He was an influential figure when Uma Bharti was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and was said to run the government. He has been a Rajya Sabha MP since 2009.
Vijay Goel
Goel is one of BJP’s topmost leaders in Delhi. He started off as a student leader and was detained during the Emergency. He is a fourth term MP and was a minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee PMO. He was also Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports in the Vajpayee government.
8) Rajen Gohain, 65, Lok Sabha Nawgong (Assam)
Gohain is a fourth term MP. He participated in the All Assam students’ movement of the 1980s. He later joined the BJP in 1991. The ministerial berth is a recognition of Gohain’s service to the party, which formed its first ever government in Assam in assembly polls held in April-May.
9) Mahendra Nath Pandey, 58, Chandauli (Uttar Pradesh)
With Uttar Pradesh elections scheduled for February 2017, Pandey’s inclusion is a message to the state’s sizeable Brahmin population. Pandey holds a doctorate from the Banaras Hindu University. He is a two-term BJP MLA and a first term MP. Pandey has held several ministerial portfolios, including of the Minister of Urban Development in Uttar Pradesh.
10) CR Chaudhary, 68, Lok Sabha MP from Nagaur (Rajasthan)
Chaudhary, a first time MP, has been inducted for his expertise in the field of rural development, with a degree in the subject from the University of Birmingham. He started his career as a lecturer in Barmer and Ajmer, later qualifying for the Rajasthan Administrative Services. He served in various capacities in the Rajasthan government, including in its agriculture marketing department and Rajasthan State Transport Corporation.
11) PP Chaudhary, 63, LS MP from Pali (Rajasthan)
Chaudhary, a first time MP, is a senior Supreme Court advocate. According to his resume, Chaudhary has conducted 11,000 cases, mostly related to constitutional litigation, for the last 38 years. He hails from the OBC Seervi caste of Rajasthan. Chaudhary says he comes from a poor farming community and had joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) when he was just eight years old. He also heads the Seervi Mahasabha.
12) Ramdas Athawale, 56, Rajya Sabha (Maharashtra)
Ramdas Athawale
Athawale is his party’s lone member in the Rajya Sabha. He is a well known Dalit leader of Maharashtra and has been a minister in the Congress-led governments in his state. Athawale was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 and then again in 1999 and 2004. He is also a trade unionist and has acted in Marathi films and theatre. Athawale joined the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra in 2011.
13) Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, 62, LS MP from Dhule (Maharashtra)
Bhamre is an oncologist and a surgeon. He was educated at Grant Medical College, JJ Hospital and Tata Cancer Hospital, all of which are in Mumbai. He is a first time MP. Bhamre was earlier with the Shiv Sena. He is from the Maratha community. Bhamre’s father Ramrao Patil was a former Congress legislator.
14) Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor, 49, LS MP from Dahod (Gujarat)
Bhabor is a tribal. He is a five term legislator and this is his first term as an MP. Bhabhor has handled several ministerial portfolios in Gujarat, including tribal affairs and environment. He was part of the Modi’s council of ministers in Gujarat.
15) Mansukh Mandaviya, 44, Rajya Sabha (Gujarat)
Mandaviya is from the Patel community. His inclusion in the cabinet is a message to the community in Gujarat, which has been demanding job quotas and the BJP is seemingly losing its supporters among the community. Gujarat assembly polls are slated for December 2017. Mandavia was active in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and has been an organizational man of the BJP since then. He was also the chairman of the Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation where he claims to have given importance to the farm mechanization and farmer markets. He also organized fairs to enable farmers get direct access to market for their produce rather than going via middlemen.
16) Faggan Singh Kulaste, 57, LS MP fro Mandla (Madhya Pradesh)
Kulaste is a tribal. He is a one term Madhya Pradesh MLA. This is fifth term as a Lok Sabha MP. He has also served a term in the Rajya Sabha. Kulaste was Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Tribal Affairs in the Vajpayee government.
17) Ajay Tamta, 43, LS MP from Almora (Uttarakhand)
Tamta is a dalit and a two term Uttarakhand legislator. This is his first term in the Lok Sabha. Tamta was a minister in the BJP government in Uttarakhand between 2007 to 2012.
Anupriya Singh Patel
Anupriya is the daughter of Kurmi leader late Sone Lal Patel. She was an MLA from the Rohaniya constituency in the 2012 elections. Anupriya is a graduate from New Delhi’s Lady Sri Ram College and also has a masters in business administration. Her inclusion is with an eye on the UP assembly polls. Her community has a significant presence in across eastern UP. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Anupriya’s party, Apna Dal, allied with the BJP and won two seats. She has merged her party with the BJP.
19) Krishna Raj, 49, LS MP from Shahjahanpur (UP)
Raj is another leader to be appointed minister from Uttar Pradesh. She is a Dalit. She has been a two term MLA in UP. This is her first term as an MP.
