 "Arjun Ram Meghwal and Santosh Gangwar")
Amid all the media attention on the likes of Smriti Irani and Venkaiah Naidu being shunted out of HRD and Parliamentary Affairs respectively, people almost missed the announcement that Arjun Meghwal and Santosh Gangwar had been made the new Ministers of State for Finance, replacing Jayant Sinha, who has been appointed Minister of State for Civil Aviation.
Mehgwal and Gangwar are both said to be highly respected in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and are well regarded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While for Meghwal it is a straight-up promotion being inducted into the council of ministers, Gangwar is also being elevated in a way. From having independent charge of textiles, he has now been moved to India’s nodal ministry, and will be handling key departments from among Economic Affairs, Expenditure, Revenue, Financial Services, and DIPAM.
Meghwal is a two-time Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha from the Bikaner constituency. A former Indian Administrative Service Officer, his official records in the Ministry of Personnel website show his year of birth as 1953. They also show that he was promoted to Indian Administrative Service (Rajasthan cadre) in 1999, when he was 46 years old.
Meghwal is famous for eschewing the official transportation provided to him by the government and cycles to the Parliament. He even cycled to Rashtrapati Bhawan for swearing in on Tuesday.
A dalit, Meghwal hails from a family of weavers and his known as a tenacious Parliamentarian and is currently the Treasury’s chief whip in Lok Sabha. He was awarded the best Parliamentarian in 2013. He is known to raise issues and actively participate in debates, something which will hold him in good stead, backing up Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in discussions in the upcoming sessions of Parliament.
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Gangwar, before being appointed MoS (Finance) was the MoS (Textile) with an independent charge. The much awaited new National Textile Policy, expected to be released in the public domain soon, was formulated under his charge.
Known as a soft-spoken person who stays away from the media, Gangwar is considered proactive and hands-on by bureaucrats in the Textile Ministry as well as textile industry associations and interest groups. The officials in the ministry say he is a very approachable minister who takes considered decisions. These traits will be much valued in the North Block.
A veteran Parliamentarian, Gangwar has represented Bareilly in Lok Sabha since 1989, except for the 15th Lok Sabha (2009-2014). He was also in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s council of Ministers, holding the posts of Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Parliamentary Affairs.
