News Analysis India

Tag: Modi cabinet

  • Modi’s new Cabinet: Elections, caste equations weigh heavy in rejig

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW :  Electoral imperatives as well as the BJP’s desire to shed its image as a primarily upper-caste party appeared to weigh heavy in Wednesday’s Cabinet reshuffle as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted several faces belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC communities.

    Given that non-Yadav OBC and non-Jatav Scheduled Castes had played a significant role in the BJP winning 312 of Uttar Pradesh’s 403 Assembly seats in 2017, Wednesday’s Cabinet expansion kept in mind the caste arithmetic of the state.

    The state also bagged the maximum number of berths with seven of its MPs taking the oath. Of them, six are either from OBCs or Scheduled Caste. Pankaj Chaudhary and Anupriya Patel belong to the Kurmi community, categorised as OBCs. B L Verma is a Lodh-Rajput, also an OBC. Kaushal Kishore, an eloquent MP considered close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, belongs to the OBC Pasi caste.

    The other two from backward communities are S P S Baghel and Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma. They belong to the SC and Kori OBC communities respectively. The only upper-caste member from UP is Ajay Kumar, a Brahmin.

    Similar social engineering has been attempted in the representation from Maharashtra. Of the four new ministers from the state, only Narayan Rane, a Maratha, belongs to the upper caste. Among the other three, Bhagwat Karad is a Wanjari OBC, Kapil Patil belongs to Agri OBC community and Bharti Pawar is from a Scheduled Tribe.

    From Madhya Pradesh, the party picked Virendra Kumar a seven-term parliamentarian who’s from the  Khatik OBC community, which constitutes 15-16% of the state’s population. The humiliation in the West Bengal Assembly elections did not stop the party from inducting two ministers from the state, both from the backward communities. While John Barla is an ST from the tea community in north Bengal, Shantanu Thakur is a Matua, an OBC who are Hindu refugees from Bangladesh.

    In Gujarat, Patidar community members Puroshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandavia were elevated to the Cabinet rank while Mahendrabhai Munjpara and Darshana Jardosh were made ministers of state. (With Sudhir Suryawanshi and Pranab Mondal)

  • JDU ‘ready’ to join Union Cabinet this time, says chief RCP Singh

    By Express News Service
    PATNA: It is now a foregone conclusion that Bihar’s ruling JDU will join the Union Cabinet whenever its expansion is carried out following the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    The buzz is that the JD-U, which has 16 MPs, will get berths this time keeping the political equation in the mind for next the 2024 parliamentary elections.

    “The JDU, headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is part of the National Democrcatic Allinace (NDA) both in centre and the state. Thus, it is natural under alliance for the JDU to be in the union cabinet. We are ready for it,” national president of JDU RCP Singh told the media on Monday.

    Singh, further, said that it is up to CM Nitish Kumar to decide as whom from the party will join the union cabinet. 

    “For this, there is no formula to join the Union Cabinet as such,” he categorically stated. 

    In reply to a specific query of the media, Singh said that the JDU is an ally of NDA in centre and not a trade organisation. “Naturally, what an ally in government deserves to get will naturally come. Our alliance is for development and it will complete its five year-term in Bihar also,” the bureaucrat-turned politician said.

    Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will leave for New Delhi on Tuesday amid speculations that he may meet with senior BJP leaders and a formal discussion may take place over the next expansion of cabinet and the proportion of JDU participation in it. But senior JDU leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh denied this speculation and said the chief minister will go to New Delhi on his personal tour for his eye check-up with a doctor.

    At the time of government of first cabinet of NDA govt in centre in 2019, the JDU had refused to be in the cabinet saying that the party deserved a ‘proportional participation in the cabinet.’ The JDU was reportedly offered one berth in the cabinet against the demand for three. But, if sources are to be believed, after Bihar assembly elections in which the JDU had suffered political loss slipping to the third spot in terms number of seats won, the bargaining ration in the JDU has been somewhat contained.

     According to sources, whenever the cabinet is expanded, one to two ministers would be from the JD-U quota this time-mostly likely RCP Singh and Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh- both are MPs of JDU and considered closest to CM Nitish Kumar.

    But RCP Singh and Rajiv Ranjan Singh separately told that it is the prerogative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to decide the time of the cabinet expansion.

  • Talent crunch in government and party haunts BJP, course correction on way

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Concerned at the growing sense of discomfort over talent crunch in the government and the party, the BJP brass is learnt to be working overtime to address the issue.

    The course correction roadmap concurred by the leadership of both the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is likely to be mirrored in the expansion of the Modi Cabinet and the saffron outfit’s national office bearers’ team.

    At the core of the problem is the lack of a crop of leaders who can step in times of crisis to swing the public perception and rally party workers. “The government and the BJP organisation mostly reflect a team of leaders with managerial bent of minds. The rise of Modi and Amit Shah corresponded with an expanding tribe of people with least public appeal in government and party positions. The pandemic has just woken up the leadership to the challenge that was being ignored,” said a senior RSS functionary.

    While the RSS mobilised its resources to set up COVID health care infrastructure during the second wave, sources said its senior functionaries noted the absence of ministers and BJP leaders from the scenes, which only added to the negative perception about the party.

    “Not only is the government seen as PM-centric, there’s hardly anyone among BJP national office bearers, except Bhupender Yadav, who can even manage elections in states. The rumblings in the state units suggest disconnect of the national office bearers from the ground realities,” said a top BJP leader.

    That the general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh has to be sent to four states four states in recent days to work out peace among warring factions reveals the extent of the dearth of talent pool in the party. Sources said that the possibility of exchange of resource pools between the government and the BJP appears also not ruled out.

  • Cabinet approves extension of tenure of Commission constituted to examine Sub-categorization within OBCs in Central List

    The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the final extension of the term of the Other Backward Classes in the Central List currently mandated upto 20th June 2018, till 31st July, 2018.

    The Commission held extensive meetings with the stake holders including the State Governments, the State Backward Classes Commissions, various community associations and general public belonging to various Backward Classes and Communities. The Commission also obtained records, caste-wise of OBCs admitted in higher educational institution as well as similar caste-wise data of recruits in Central Departments, Central Public Sector Undertakings, Public Sector Banks & Financial Institutions.

    To have a detailed look at the data collected, the Commission has sought extension of its term 31st July, 2018.