Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s list of 58 ministers, 25 of whom are of cabinet rank, 9 Ministers of State with independent charge, and 24 Ministers of State, reflect his innate sense of who to repose his faith on. It is what some call the shock and awe strategy. While a number of performing old timers from the first Modi Government have been retained others have been dropped. Jayant Sinha who was MoS Finance and later also held the Civil Aviation portfolio in the outgoing government has been left out. So too Suresh Prabhu, a dependable hand right from the Vajpayee era when he made his mark as the Environment Minister. Unfortunately, several rail accidents marred Prabhu’s tenure in the Railways Ministry. Sushma Swaraj, former external affairs minister has opted out on account of her health. So too, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Other old hands that have been left out are Maneka Gandhi and Rajyavardhan Rathore. Interestingly Modi 2.O includes two foreign service officers, S Jayashankar former Foreign Secretary and Hardeep Singh Puri who was Minister of State with independent charge in the previous government. Puri had lost the elections this time. Another MP who many thought would be inducted is the articulate, progressive Rajiv Pratap Rudy who also was minister in the Vajpayee Government and a 3rd term MP.
The Modi 2.O Ministry includes 16 first timers and 38 repeats. While some political analysts and BJP spokespersons have claimed that those from the previous government who were re-inducted into the ministry are performing ministers, but Prakash Javadekar who first held the Environment Ministry and later handled the HRD Ministry, many feel had failed to steer the HRD ship. Javadekar could not come up with the much touted new education policy – a much needed initiative.
Ironically, Nitish Kumar who enjoys a close bond with Prime Minister Modi has conveyed that his party the Janata Dal (United) would not join the ministry. Nitish Kumar is miffed at not being given adequate representation in Modi 2.0. However, Modi still has scope to expand his ministry and take it up to a strength of 80. Perhaps he prefers to wait awhile and assess the impact of the first swearing-in which has left no one in doubt about who the boss is.
Meanwhile, North East India has only two representatives in the Modi Ministry – Kiren Rijiju who was MoS Home in the outgoing ministry and Rameshwar Teli the sitting MP from Dibrugarh who represents the tea community. Speculations that the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), President, Himanta Biswa Sarma would find a berth in the ministry have proven wrong.
It was quite a starry show with a number of Bollywood stars in attendance. Prominent industrialists included Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani.