The cabinet reshuffle is not just about moving leaders from one ministry to another but signals a change in BJP’s functioning as well.
The third and probably the final reshuffle of the Union Cabinet before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls bears the firm stamp of the Modi-Shah combine. It also marks the rise of a next generation within the BJP and a strategy that aims beyond 2019.
Nine new ministers of state were sworn in a day after six ministers quit their jobs reportedly to serve the party. The big takeaway of this cabinet rejig is the elevation of Nirmala Sitharaman as the defence minister of the country, the moving of Piyush Goyal from power to railways and getting Nitin Gadkari to handle the water resources and Ganga ministry.
With this reshuffle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed two key sectors where his government’s performance has come under scrutiny — defence and railways. Sitharaman, known for keeping low profile, has moved into the Cabinet Committee on Security, joining Sushma Swaraj. She also will have her task clearly cut out with much to get in order in the defence ministry.
The larger thought behind this cabinet overhaul centred around “strategic placement” of the new ministers in some key ministries to ensure “last mile delivery”. In keeping with the Modi government’s penchant for acronyms, this administrative exercise was said to be based on the ‘4P’ principle – ‘passion, proficiency, professional and political acumen’ and this does bear out in many an instance.
While Suresh Prabhu has not really been diminished in stature after being shunted out from railways to commerce, getting Goyal to handle the railways is a clear move to try and get things on track in a department, which has had a new minister almost every year in the past decade.
Smriti Irani will continue to hold charge of both textiles and information & broadcasting whereas Uma Bharti has lost the ministry of water resources and Ganga rejuvenation to Gadkari. That the Namami Gange project to clean the river – one of Modi’s electoral promises — was not moving at a pace of progress that was desired is learnt to be critical to this change of berths. Since Namami Gange is also critical to Varanasi, the PM’s constituency, the need for delivery on this target area cannot be understated or neglected. MoS for Ganga rejuvenation Sanjeev Balyan has also been removed.
Bandaru Dattatreya’s exit has got Santosh Gangwar into the labour ministry while Rajiv Partap Rudy has given way to Dharmenda Pradhan who will also hold charge of skill development, along with petroleum. Job generation is one of the major challenges for the Modi government and it cannot afford any laxity on that front.
Among the new entrants, former home secretary R.K. Singh has struck big with charge of the power ministry while Indian Foreign Service officer Hradeep Puri has bagged urban development. Rajyavardhan Rathore’s record as an Olympian has won him MoS charge for youth affairs and sports. On the other hand, Vijay Goel who did not make the cut at the sports ministry, has been made MoS parliamentary affairs & statistics. Former Mumbai police commissioner Satya Pal Singh comes in as MoS HRD replacing Mahendra Nath Pandey and will also work as deputy minister to Gadkari at Ganga rejuvenation.
Mahesh Sharma who lost charge as MoS civil aviation in the last round, had to give away tourism this time. He retains the culture ministry and gets additional charge of MoS environment.
Two women members in CCS
However, there is more to this rejig than the 4Ps. It is also about deft political manoeuvres and a new BJP order coming into own — both in the government and the party.
Sitharaman’s elevation is in keeping with the PM’s increasing focus on the constituency and agency of women as also evident in the government’s stand on triple talaq and women-centric schemes like the PM Ujjwala Yojana.
With her elevation, Modi has brought in two women ministers to the Cabinet Committee on Security and with a portfolio like defence, he has the shattered another glass ceiling. That Sitharaman is a Rajya Sabha member from poll-bound Karnataka only adds to the bonus points.
Her ascent also makes the rise of the new order within the BJP. A former party spokesperson, like ministerial colleagues Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan, Sitharaman’s rise also signifies the new rung of leadership and talent that the Modi-Shah combine is investing in.
The exit of Kalraj Mishra from the cabinet has brought down the average age of the Modi’s Council of Ministers and the old BJP order has been put quietly and decisively on the margins. While the Margdarshak Mandal had already taken care of that, the shifting out of Uma Bharti from the Ganga ministry mainly on counts of non-delivery is also telling – that there is no place or indulgence now for the ministership and work ethic of that era.
Still with the portfolio of drinking water and sanitation, Bharti may be sulking away from New Delhi to deliberately skip the swearing in but that has little impact on the Modi regime.
Rejig reflects idea of creating New India
Stress on creating New India
The elevation of the lone Muslim face in the Council of Ministers — that of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi– holds much political significance at a time when the Modi government’s overall approach to the community has come into question. The simultaneous exit of Balyan, who has drawn widespread criticism for his alleged role in the Muzaffarnagar riots, also could serve to smoothen some rough edges even if Anant Hegde is accommodated from the election-bound Karnataka.
The inductions from election-bound states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan also carry political import as does the fact that allies and even recent ones like JD(U) have been ignored in this round of the reshuffle by a now supremely confident BJP.
“The cabinet reshuffle reflects the thought enunciated often by the PM — that of the larger idea of creating a New India. Giving more power to women is key to New India, hence the moves that are being made,” a prominent BJP leader told to ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
“The induction of bureaucracy is not about any talent deficit within the party, an issue that is often misinterpreted. All these people are party members and have been working with us for some years and fully understand what the BJP’s thinking is and what our vision for New India is. They are in the cabinet to take this vision ahead,” the leader said.
The new order that Modi and Shah have ushered in also comes with an intriguing work ethic. It is distinct due to its high levels of secrecy when no one — not even to-be ministers sometimes — get prior intimation of their place in the cabinet.
Such is the level of control over the party and the government that most speculation around any such exercise turns largely futile. So much so that even ministers don’t venture to speculate on the fate of their colleagues.
This new order, however, is not limited to the Modi government. The party is next in line and a major reorganisation there is also in the works.
Apart from this, there have been rounds of bureaucratic reshuffles, the PM’s direct outreach with all top three layers of the bureaucracy and a new reliance on former bureaucrats and their lateral entry into his Council of Ministers (four former bureaucrats now join the ranks). All these serve as indicators to a larger strategy of expanding the talent base and bringing in expertise wherever necessary, to create a new BJP order — in the government and the party.