Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 19 new ministers into his cabinet on Tuesday. The expansion seemed to serve the twin objectives of including the social groups (Dalits and Adivasis) that voted for him in the last general election while also keeping an eye on the elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Two more women ministers are added to the cabinet – Ms Krishna Raj and Anupriya Patel. After having floated the slogan, “minimum government, maximum governance,” during his election campaign in 2014, Modi has backtracked by having the biggest cabinet of 78 ministers. There is no logic to this expansion but the politics of survival must have guided the decisions on who is to be made minister and who should be dropped. Renowned journalist MJ Akbar is the Muslim face of the BJP after Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Najma Heptullah.
The surprise package was the elevation of Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Prakash Javadekar to cabinet rank. Is this because Javadekar has ensured smooth environmental clearances to major projects and therefore facilitating the “Make in India” campaign without a glitch? The five ministers dropped from the Union Council of Ministers include Nihalchand, Ram Shankar Katheria, Sanwar Lal Jat, Manuskhbhai D Vasva and MK Kundariya. Modi had personally assessed the score card of all his ministers and found their performance lackluster and uninspiring. But of the 19 new ministers inducted by Modi on Tuesday very few inspire confidence. The others lack experience so there is no guarantee that they will perform and, “boost the economy” as Modi has opined.
That three Dalits found a place in Modi’s cabinet should silence his critics who have leveled charges that the NDA Government is largely represented by higher caste Hindus. This is also a direct challenge to Mayawati, the champion of Dalits and one who has ridden on the caste bandwagon to come to power in Uttar Pradesh. It remains to be seen if the new batch of ministers will be assets to the Modi Government or its bane.