Manmohan drops seven ministers, inducts eight, and promotes three to Cabinet rank

The long-awaited reshuffle of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council of ministers yesterday saw changes in some major portfolios.


Milind Deora shares a light moment with father Murli Deora
at Khetan Bhavan in Churchgate yesterday. Deora senior
had resigned as the Minister of Petroleum just before the reshuffle

Salman Khursheed took over law, while Dinesh Trivedi was given railways. New inductees such as Jayanthi Natarajan was appointed to the environment ministry, whileu00a0 seven ministers got the axe.

The 'big four' Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, Defence Minister A K Antony and Home Minister P Chidambaram have been left untouched in the exercise to draft a new Team Manmohan.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) forwarded to President Pratibha Patil a list of 13 people to be appointed to his council. Some of these, such as Jairam Ramesh, were promoted, along with eight new faces. The ministers were administered the oath of office at Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday evening.

The reshuffle, the second in the UPA-II government after the first one in January, accommodates ally Trinamool Congress by giving the key portfolio of railways to Dinesh Trivedi, who takes over as a full fledged minister after Mamata Banerjee was sworn in as West Bengal chief minister.

Sudip Bandopadhyay of the TMC also makes his debut as minister of state for health and family welfare.
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However, Mukul Roy has been relieved as minister of state for railways, a day after he ignored Manmohan Singh's directive to visit a train derailment site in Assam. He retains his job as the junior minister in the shipping ministry.

The other key ally, DMK, figures nowhere, with Dayanidhi Maran's resignation accepted as union textiles minister following allegations of involvement in the 2G spectrum scam.

With A Raja also having gone, this has reduced the DMK's presence in the council of ministers to four M K Azhagiri (chemicals and fertilisers), S S Palanimanickam (finance), D Napoleon (social justice) and S Gandhiselvan (health).

E Ahmed of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which is pivotal to the survival of the Congress in Kerala, is back as minister of state for external affairs and also gets human resource development (HRD).

The primary charge of the HRD ministry continues to rest with Kapil Sibal, who also holds the communications and IT portfolio.

Father-son swap
In a father-son swap, senior leader Murli Deora is out of the cabinet, and his son Milind in as minister of state for communications and IT.

In the environment ministry, Jairam Ramesh has been replaced by Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan and elevated as cabinet minister in-charge of rural development.

Ramesh replaces Vilasrao Deshmukh, who has been shifted to the science and technology and earth sciences ministry.

Amongst the other biggies, Salman Khursheed gets law from M Veerappa Moily, who has been made corporate affairs minister; Beni Prasad Verma, who was minister of state for steel with independent charge, has been elevated as cabinet minister in charge of the same ministry.

The other new cabinet minister is V Kishore Chandra Deo, who will take care of tribal affairs and Panchayati Raj.
Joining Deo, Milind Deora, Bandopadhyay and Natarajan are four other fresh faces.

These are Assam leader Paban Singh Ghatowar, who will be minister of state independent charge (Development of North Eastern Region), and three ministers of state Congress' lone Lok Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh Charan Singh Mahant (agriculture and food processing); high profile Rajiv Shukla (parliamentary affairs) and the understated Jitendra Singh (home), who is a close aide of party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

Dropped
The others, whose resignations have been forwarded with the recommendation that they be accepted, are DMK's Dayanidhi Maran as well as M S Gill, B K Handique, Kanti Lal Bhuria, A Sai Prathap and Arun S Yadav.

According to N Bhaskar Rao, analyst at the Centre for Media Studies, "The cabinet reshuffle is nothing to get excited about, as it does not indicate any direction or any special initiative from the government.

"Some new talent has come in but there is nothing else to say except that the environment ministry, which was being headed by a person who had been causing heartburn to many industries and their investors, has been shifted. Other than that there is no major change," he said.

BJP dubs reshuffle a 'damp squib'
The BJP yesterday dubbed the Cabinet reshuffle as a "damp squib" and insisted that the Prime Minister has failed to reassure the nation.

"The Prime Minister's much acclaimed and awaited reshuffle has proven to be a damp squib. It is a futile exercise which inspires none and in no way dispels the gloom shadowing the embattled UPA government," said BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
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Contrary to the wishes of the BJP, which has been demanding removal of Home Minister P Chidambaram and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, the duo have been left untouched in the latest rejig.
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"This is a wasted exercise which unreservedly attests that we have a dysfunctional government that is destined to sink. Apparently, the Prime Minister has failed to reassure the nation once again," Rudy said.

Unhappy, Kamat quits as a Minister
After skipping the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan this evening, senior Congress leader Gurudas Kamat has resigned as a minister, as he was given independent charge as Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation. Kamat was reportedly upset that he had not been given a Cabinet rank.
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In a press release, he said, "There is no question of any disappointment over the portfolio... The reasons are totally personal and not any defiance of the party leadership as is being made out in certain sections of the media." Kamat's exit from the Cabinet is being viewed as a severe jolt to his supporters as they are said to be engaged in fierce show down against Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh.

Cabinet Crew
>>V. Kishore Chandra Deo: Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj (Inducted)
>>Beni Prasad Verma: Steel
>>Dinesh Trivedi: Railways
>>Jairam Ramesh: Rural Development

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)
>>Srikant Jena: Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and
Fertilisers
>>Jayanthi Natarajan: Environment and Forests (Inducted)
>>Paban Singh Ghatowar: Development of North

Eastern Region
>>Gurudas Kamat: Drinking Water and Sanitation
>>Sudip Bandopadhyaya: Health and Family Welfare (Inducted)
>>Charan Das Mahant: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
>>Jitendra Singh:

Home Affairs (Inducted)
>>Milind Deora: Communications and Information Technology (Inducted)
>>Rajiv Shukla: Parliamentary Affairs (Inducted)
>>Vilasrao Deshmukh: Science and Technology and Earth Sciences
>>M Veerappa Moily: Corporate Affairs
>>Anand Sharma: Commerce and Industry; and additional charge of Textiles
>>P K Bansal: Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of Water Resources
>>Salman Khursheed: Law and Justice and additional charge of Minority Affairs

Ministers of State
>>E Ahmed: External Affairs and HRD
>>V Narayanasamy: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; and Prime Minister's Office
>>Harish Rawat: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries; and Parliamentary Affairs
>>Mukul Roy: Shipping
>>Ashwani Kumar: Planning; Science and Technology and Earth Sciences