Narendra Modi and Team 72: Narendra Modi’s cabinet took oath on Sunday evening. In the swearing-in ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, 30 cabinet ministers, five ministers of state with independent charge and 36 ministers of state were sworn in. The division of ministries has not been done yet. The first meeting of the Narendra Modi cabinet is going to be held this evening. Many decisions are expected to be taken in it. Through this cabinet, Narendra Modi has tried to give many political and social messages.
Let us see what messages are coming out of Narendra Modi’s cabinet–
Table of Contents
1- New faces got place:Â
For the first time, Narendra Modi is leading such a coalition government in which BJP does not have a majority. Its effect is also visible in the cabinet. BJP has made five people from the allied parties cabinet ministers. Because of this, Narayan Rane, Parshottam Rupala and Anurag Thakur did not get a place in the cabinet despite winning. These people are expected to get responsibility in the BJP organization. 17 ministers from Modi’s previous government have lost the elections. These include the names of cabinet minister level Smriti Irani, RK Singh, Arjun Munda and Mahendra Pandey. Out of the defeated ministers, only L Murugan has been made a minister. He is a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh. He had lost the Lok Sabha from Nilgiri (reserved) seat in Tamil Nadu.Â
2- BJP’s dominance:Â
After the results of the Lok Sabha elections, there were reports in the media that BJP’s allies were demanding one ministerial post for every three MPs. But after the swearing-in, it came to light that no such formula was considered. TDP and JDU, the two largest parties after BJP in the NDA, have got only two berths each in the cabinet. This shows that the allies have not been able to bargain much with BJP. This indicated that BJP has not come under much pressure. Â
3- Scope of cabinet expansion:Â
71 ministers have been included in the Modi cabinet. According to the rules, a maximum of 81 ministers can be in the cabinet. There are still 8-9 seats vacant in the cabinet. It will be decided in the coming days when the Modi cabinet will be expanded. And if it happens, then who will get a place in it.Â
4- After UP defeat:Â
BJP is most upset with the election results from Uttar Pradesh. It has suffered a loss of 29 seats in Uttar Pradesh. Apart from this, in Varanasi seat where PM Narendra Modi was a candidate, he was able to win the election by a margin of only one and a half lakh votes. This has increased the trouble of BJP. Assembly elections are to be held there in 2026-2027. Its effect was also seen in the cabinet. 10 ministers from Uttar Pradesh have been included in the Modi cabinet. Every third MP of NDA from Uttar Pradesh has become a minister. Earlier in 2019, when BJP got 62 out of 80 seats, 12 people were made ministers from UP.Â
5- BJP will get a new president:Â
Narendra Modi’s new cabinet also showed the way for change in the BJP organization. BJP President JP Nadda has been given a place in the cabinet. BJP has a policy of one person one post. This has made it certain that BJP will get a new president. Earlier in 2014, Rajnath Singh was the BJP president. He got a place in the Modi cabinet. After this, Amit Shah was made the president. At the same time, Amit Shah was the BJP president in 2019. He was made a cabinet minister in Modi 2.0. After this, JP Nadda was given the responsibility of BJP president. Now after Nadda becoming a minister, the question is who will be the next president of BJP.Â
6- Message to the world:Â
Heads of government of seven countries were present at the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi’s cabinet. In this way, Modi tried to give a big message in international politics. The message was that the new government will continue the policy of ‘neighbourhood first’ on the foreign front as before. Along with this, a new sea policy will be adopted. Heads of state of Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Seychelles, Nepal and Bhutan were invited to the swearing-in ceremony. Five of these are countries of the Indian Ocean region, while Nepal and Bhutan are important neighbours. Narendra Modi had invited SAARC countries in his first swearing-in ceremony. In his second term, all neighbouring countries except Pakistan and China, as well as Thailand and Kyrgyzstan were invited to the swearing-in ceremony. Â
7- BJP’s Mission South:Â
BJP is constantly trying to establish its foothold in South India. But it is not getting the expected success. This time the election results are encouraging for BJP. For the first time BJP has won a seat in Kerala, the stronghold of the left. While in Karnataka its seats have come down from 25 to 17, in Telangana the number of seats has increased from four to eight. But BJP has not got any success in Tamil Nadu, the largest state of the South. Despite this, BJP has given ample space to South India in the cabinet. Two people have been given place from Kerala, two from Tamil Nadu, two from Telangana, one from Andhra Pradesh and four from Karnataka.Â
8- No Muslim in the Cabinet:Â
Five minorities have been included in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet. These five minorities are included, but there is no Muslim among them. This is ignoring about 20 percent of the country’s population. No Muslim candidate from BJP and the parties supporting it has won the Lok Sabha elections. Apart from this, these parties also do not have any Muslim member in the Rajya Sabha. This is when the issue of Muslims was in discussion during the Lok Sabha election campaign. Â
9- Message from caste structure:Â
In Narendra Modi’s third government, BJP has also taken care of caste arithmetic. There are 28 members of the general category in the cabinet. These include eight Brahmins and three Rajputs. Apart from these, two ministers each have been made from Bhumihar, Yadav, Jat, Kurmi, Maratha, Vokkaliga community. Two people from the Sikh community have been made ministers. Along with the Lingayat community of Karnataka, one person each from Nishad, Lodh and Mahadalit community has been made a minister. The influential Matua community of Bengal has also been given a place. Apart from these, one berth each has been given to Ahir, Gurjar, Khatik, Bania community. The upper caste is considered the core voter of BJP. Therefore, they have been given a prominent place in the cabinet. At the same time, after the setback in the elections, BJP has tried to give place to other classes as well.
10- Women in Modi Cabinet:Â
74 women have won and reached the Parliament in this election. These women were in the fray on the tickets of 14 parties including BJP, TMC and Congress. Out of these, 43 have won the election for the first time.
The maximum number of 31 women have won on BJP tickets. Apart from this, Congress has 13, TMC has 11 and SP has five women MPs. There are only 13.6 percent women MPs in the 18th Lok Sabha. This is much less than the law made for women reservation, although this law has not been implemented yet.
Seven women have been made ministers in the Narendra Modi cabinet. These are Nirmala Sitharaman, Annapurna Devi, Raksha Khadse, Savitri Thakur, Anupriya Patel, Nimuben Bambhania and Shobha Karandlaje. Of these, except Anupriya Patel, all are members of BJP. BJP has given place in the cabinet to six of its 31 women MPs. This number is less than 20 percent.Â
