Cabinet reshuffle: Woman power-point, allies left out in PM Modi's new team
NEW DELHI: The third reshuffle of the NDA government threw a big surprise in the form of Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday. She became the first full-time woman Defence Minister of India (though then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had additional charge of defence). The move has added significant woman power to national security as now, for the first time, there are two women in the Cabinet Committee on Security — other being Sushma Swaraj.
The elevation, however, is unlikely to be a bed of roses for Sitharaman. It’s the Chinese threat along India’s borders that has made the need for a full-time Defence Minister extremely crucial. Sitharaman already has an image of being tough on China. While at the helm of the Commerce Ministry, she raised questions on quality of Chinese goods and mounted economic pressure on Beijing in an attempt to end Doklam standoff.
While her party chief Amit Shah was keen to draft her for his Mission South campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took it to the gameplan to the next level by choosing a south Indian to lead the country’s defence. “Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh brainstormed a lot to identify a full-time Raksha Mantri,” said sources. “Sitharaman’s name was suggested by Jaitley. Sensing the political opportunity it held, Amit Shah backed it immediately.”
Even otherwise, the reshuffle exercise seems to have been well-utilised by the BJP. None of the allies were included in the exercise, though BJP’s latest partner JD(U) was expected to get at least a couple of berths. Modi has also made an attempt to promote ‘high-performers’ to further his key campaigns — Hardeep Singh Puri for Housing for All, Alphons Kannanthanam for Digital India, Dharmendra Pradhan for Skill India and Nitin Gadkari for Clean Ganga. Four Ministers of State — Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal, Sitharaman and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi — have been elevated to Cabinet ranks this time.
Non-performers were rehabilitated rather than being dropped out. Uma Bharti was relegated to Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Mahesh Sharma was stripped of the Tourism Ministry and Vijay Goel was divested of the Sports Ministry. Olympic silver medallist shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore has become the first sportsperson to head the Sports Ministry.
Interestingly, nearly 10 per cent of Modi’s council of ministers is now made up of former bureaucrats or ex-servicemen. Latest inductions include Raj Kumar Singh, Puri, Satyapal Singh and Kannanthanam.
Two women now CCS members
With the appointment of Nirmala Sitharaman as Defence Minister, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) will now have two women ministers. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is also a member of the CCS along with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The CCS is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Allies left out
The reshuffle turned out to be an all-BJP affair as allies were not a part of the exercise. Besides the JD(U), which was expected to get representation at the Centre, the Shiv Sena was unhappy with its non-inclusion in the Cabinet, stating that the NDA was “almost dead” and BJP remembered it only when in need of help.