Four senior Union ministers — Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Harsh Vardhan, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ — were among the 11 ministers who resigned on Wednesday ahead of the cabinet reshuffle in the evening.
According to top government sources, all it took was one phone call.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepared to effect his first cabinet reshuffle in this term yesterday, BJP National President JP Nadda sat down with his phone.
He had to make 11 phone calls.
And as the time for the announcement drew closer, Nadda dialled 11 Union Ministers and asked them to put in their papers, sources told CNN-News18.
Reason: PM Modi’s new cabinet was going to be bigger, bolder and younger with some fresh faces – synergy was the keyword.
President Ram Nath Kovind received and accepted the resignations of Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Harsh Vardhan, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, D V Sadananda Gowda, Santosh Gangwar, Sanjay Dhotre, Debasree Chaudhuri, Rattan Lal Kataria, Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Babul Supriyo.
Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot had resigned after he was made Governor of Karnataka on Tuesday.
In all, six Cabinet Ministers, one Minister of State (Independent Charge) and five Ministers of State have resigned. After resigning, some of them changed their social media profile to reflect the change in status with Prasad’s Twitter bio, saying ‘Member of Parliament from Patna Sahib Lok Sabha, Bihar’ and ‘BJP worker’, while Javadekar’s profile stated ‘Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha’.
Law and IT minister Prasad’s resignation comes amid a row between micro-blogging platform Twitter and the government over various issues, including compliance with the new IT rules. The resignations come after Prasad and I&B minister Javadekar announced sweeping regulations for social media firms like Facebook and Twitter, OTT players as well as digital media. Health Minister Vardhan, whose handling of the COVID-19 crisis had drawn flak from the opposition parties, resigned from the Union Council of Ministers, official sources said.
Vardhan, a doctor himself, had been in charge of the health ministry as well as the science and technology ministry as the Covid-19 pandemic broke and then India worked to develop vaccines. However, his various comments in the middle of the crisis were slammed by many as insensitive and ignorant of the ground reality, even as he strongly defended the government’s handling of the situation.
Dhotre, who represents the Akola Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, was made the MoS for Education, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology in May 2019. Chaudhuri submitted her resignation in the morning, one of her close aides said. She was elected to the Lok Sabha from West Bengal’s Raiganj constituency in the 2019 general elections.
Asked whether he has resigned from the post of Labour Minister, Gangwar answered in the affirmative. “Yes, I have resigned,” he told PTI. His resignation comes weeks after he had complained to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath about the situation in his Bareilly constituency, saying officials don’t take calls and government health centres send back patients for ”referrals” from the district hospital.
Among the 36 new faces in the new cabinet, eight are lawyers, four are doctors, two are former IAS officers and four MBA degree holders, besides several engineers, making it an eclectic mix of professionals in what is seen as an attempt by the prime minister to give a boost to the governance quotient ahead of a string of assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Besides 15 Cabinet ministers, 28 Ministers of State, comprising new faces and those elevated, were sworn in at a ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 43 ministers including the seven elevated to the Cabinet with all COVID protocol in place.
(With PTI inputs)
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