This Article is From Jul 07, 2021

15 New Cabinet Ministers, Anurag Thakur And Hardeep S Puri Are Promoted

15 New Cabinet Ministers, Anurag Thakur And Hardeep S Puri Are Promoted
New Delhi:

Fifteen of the 44 ministers who took oath today will be part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, a communique from Rashtrapati Bhavan shows. Both Jyotraditaya Scindia whose exit helped the BJP bag Madhya Pradesh and former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal are on the list.   

Five union ministers -- Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, Parshottam Rupala, G Kishan Reddy, Mansukh Mandaviya and Anurag Thakur -- have been promoted to the cabinet.

Besides, the list includes Narayan Tatu Rane, Dr Virendra Kumar, Ramchandra Prasad Singh, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Pashupati Kumar Paras, Raj Kumar Singh, and Bhupender Yadav.

With four key ministers -- health minister Dr Harshvardhan, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar and Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank" -- resigning, there is speculation that the reboot is a damage control measure in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic and the tailspin in economy.

As the Union health minister, Dr Harshvardhan was in charge of the country's strategy to battle coronavirus. That policy faced global criticism as India struggled to contain the second wave of Covid amid a huge vaccine shortage.

The new laws governing the media and social media have also been heavily criticised and the row over compliance by platforms like Twitter rages.

The resignations have freed up space in the Union cabinet, and they have proved that the government's failure, the Congress has said.

It is also suspected that the reshuffle – coming ahead of elections to five state assemblies including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur – meant to accommodate leaders from his party and allies. Five of the 44 ministers belong to the northeast states.

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