Sachin=GOD Posted January 19, 2011 Posted January 19, 2011 Cabinet expansion: 3 elevated to Cabinet rank, major reshuffle in portfolios Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expanded his Council of Ministers on Wednesday. The swearing-in of the new incumbents took place in a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. While three Ministers of State have been elevated to the ranks of Cabinet Ministers, two Ministers of State have been given independent charge of their Ministries. Dr. Singh has also effected a major reshuffle of portfolios. Praful Patel, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Salman Khurshid, currently Ministers of State, have been elevated to Cabinet rank. Mr. Patel has been shifted from the Civil Aviation Ministry to the Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Ministry. Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi gets additional charge of Civil Aviation. Beni Prasad Verma, K.C. Venugopal and Ashwani Kumar are the new entrants in the Council of Ministers. Mr. Verma will be MoS (Independent charge) in the Steel Ministry. Mr. Kumar will be MoS in the Planning and Parliamentary Affairs and the Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Ministry, while Mr. Venugopal will be MoS in the Power Ministry. Mr. Jaiswal has been elevated as Cabinet Minister of the Coal portfolio he currently holds. Mr. Khurshid is the new Cabinet Minister for Water Resources. Sharad Pawar has shed the Consumer Affairs and Food and Civil Supplies portfolio, retaining the Agriculture Ministry. He also gets Food Processing Industries. Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy has been shifted to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry, while Kapil Sibal retains Telecom and HRD, losing the Science and Technology portfolio. Virbhadra Singh has been shifted from the Steel Ministry to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises while Vilasrao Deshmukh has been moved from Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises to Rural Development with additional charge of Panchayati Raj. M.S. Gill has been moved from the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry to Statistics and Programme Implementation. Ajay Maken, who will be a new entrant as MoS (Independent charge), will take over the Sports and Youth Affairs portfolio. In addition to Mr. Maken, K. V. Thomas has been made MoS (Independent carge). Mr. Thomas retains Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the elevated position. B.K. Handique has been divested of the Mines portfolio, while retaining the Development of North Eastern Region portfolio. Dinsha Patel, MoS Railways, has been shifted to Mines and promoted as MoS (Independent charge). C.P. Joshi has been shifted from the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Ministry to the Road Transport and Highways Ministry. Kumari Selja has divested of the Tourism portfolio but gets additional charge of Culture, while retaining the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation portfolio. Subodh Kant Sahay has been shifted from the Food Processing Industries Ministry to Tourism. Pawan Kumar Bansal has retained the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, while losing the Water Resources Ministry, which has been given to Mr. Khurshid. Changes have also been made in the portfolios of various Ministers of State. E. Ahamed has been shifted from the Railways to External Affairs while Harish Rawat has been moved from Labour to Agriculture and Food Processing Industries. V. Narayansami has been made MoS in the Prime Minister’s Office, Department of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension. He retains the Parliamentary Affairs while losing Statistics and Programme Implementation. Gurudas Kamat has been shifted from the Department of Telecom to Home Affairs in the capacity of MoS. A. Sai Pratap has been made MoS in the Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Ministry. Bharatsinh Solanki has been moved to Railways as MoS while Jitin Prasada has been made MoS in the Road Transport and Highways Ministry. Madhav S. Khandela has been moved to Tribal Affairs. R.P.N. Singh will be the MoS in Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry, while Tusharbhai Chaudhary will be MoS in the Road Transport and Highways Ministry. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1102745.ece?homepage=true cabinet expansion and reshuffle of portfolios :fail::fail::fail::fail: There were severe question marks over the performance of some ministers while some other ministers were too busy with state politics to give proper attention to their portfolios but not a single minister has been dropped from the Cabinet - the only thing thats happened is a change of portfolios. Since the days of UPA 1 there have been talks of bringing in youth and reducing the age of the cabinet - and what do we see now, 3 new ministers in the cabinet and all of them are over the age of 50 - talk about "giving chance to youth". Utter Pradesh, one of the most important states in the country for the future of the congress and the state from where Congress won 21 seats in the Lok Sabha, did not have even 1 Cabinet minister when the Govt was formed in 2009 but now that the UP Vidhan Sabha elections are coming near, we suddenly see 2 Ministers of State from UP elevated to cabinet rank and one more Minister of State (Beni Prased Verma) being inducted in the Govt. There were several ministers like Vilasrao Deshmukh, CP Joshi etc who were more interested in state politics and were said to have been uninterested in the work of their departments but they'we not been dropped, the Govt has merely changed their portfolios!! Jaipal Reddy was the Urban Development minister during the commonwealth games and his ministry was very much responsible for the games village fiasco ......so what does he get for creating such a mess in the CWG - an even more important portfolio - Petroleum and Natural Gas. Salman Khurshid was said to have done a good job as Minister of State for Corporate Affairs but now when he gets a promotion and joins the cabinet, that portfolio has been taken away from him and he is given the water resources. 'Kamal Nath was the commerce minister in UPA 1 and from the start of UPA 2 he was interested in that same portfolios but in 2009 he was given surface transport ministry and as expected he did a bad job and most of the projects slowed down under him so now he has been moved - to a department which will be even less to his liking - Urban Development. Praful Patel was the Minister of State for Aviation and we have all seen how Indian Airlines has steadly gone downhill for the past few years, so Praful Patel gets promotion to the Cabinet for doing such a bad job!!!
gaurav92 Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 This reshuffling has made no sense, giving the same set of corrupt ministers, sonme other departments, which they are not fully convinced with, and what more, some ministers are talking about changing the entiree geographic pattern of the country, by saying that he wants U.P to form an integral part of the development of India, and he is ready to set up some heavy metal, coal,steel industries there.
Sachin=GOD Posted July 31, 2012 Author Posted July 31, 2012 Bump... PC is once again the Finance Minister while Sushil Kumar Shinde is the new Home Minister (he is also likely to be made the Leader of the Lok Sabha) while Veerapa Moily has got additional charge of the Power Ministry. I expect some changes to revive the economy now that PC is once again the FM.
Crookbond Posted August 1, 2012 Posted August 1, 2012 Sushil Kumar Shinde - I rate myself and excellent power minister. In unrelated news, Shoaib Akhtar rates himself better than Dale Steyn and Malcolm Marshall.
Sachin=GOD Posted October 26, 2012 Author Posted October 26, 2012 A major (and probably the last before Lok Sabha 2014) reshuffle is expected tomorrow. Meanwhile the Foreign Minister, expected to be dropped or moved to another ministry tomorrow, has resigned ahead of the reshuffle - Link
Sachin=GOD Posted October 26, 2012 Author Posted October 26, 2012 Elevation of Rahul Gandhi? :hmmm: I don't think so. Many of the youngsters favored by him may get an elevation but IMO he will get a much bigger role in the Congress party Organization very soon.
The Outsider Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 If Rahul Gandhi is to become a future PM why doesn't he start by becoming a minister. We can certainly do with some young faces in the cabinet instead of the same buddhe which I've been seeing in politics since I used to play Ludo and Snakes & Ladders.
ganeshran Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 I don't think so. Many of the youngsters favored by him may get an elevation but IMO he will get a much bigger role in the Congress party Organization very soon. If they want to project him as the prime ministerial candidate in 2014, this is the best time to give him a ministerial berth. I dont think Congress wants him to wait till 2019, and highly unlikely that MMS will continue after 2014 unless the transition is going to happen midterm. Even then, Rahul needs to gain experience.
Sachin=GOD Posted October 26, 2012 Author Posted October 26, 2012 If Rahul Gandhi is to become a future PM why doesn't he start by becoming a minister. We can certainly do with some young faces in the cabinet instead of the same buddhe which I've been seeing in politics since I used to play Ludo and Snakes & Ladders. If they want to project him as the prime ministerial candidate in 2014' date= this is the best time to give him a ministerial berth. I dont think Congress wants him to wait till 2019, and highly unlikely that MMS will continue after 2014 unless the transition is going to happen midterm. Even then, Rahul needs to gain experience. I would also like to see him as a minister but from the point of view of the Congress if he is made a minster then he would have to focus on only one department and more importantly for them, the opposition can easily point to his (lack of) performance from now till 2014 and criticize him for that. He already is more influential than all the Congress ministers so I really don't think they will make him a minister. I think they will give him more responsibility in the party where even if he doesn't perform, the blame can be deflected to others. As for being the PM candidate in 2014 - whether they project him or not, the reality is that Rahul Gandhi is the de facto PM candidate of the Congress for 2014.
Sachin=GOD Posted October 26, 2012 Author Posted October 26, 2012 Apparently Mukul Vasnik and Ambika Soni have offered to resign in order to join the party organization and work for the growth of the party and some other ministers may also do the same. As for SM Krishna, it seems that he may be made President of Karnataka Congress because the state goes to polls in May next year.
saneindian Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 RG as a minister? Not going to happen. Read this somewhere that some Gandhi family loyalists like Motilal Vora and RK Dhawan feel "Scions of Nehru-Gandhi family should only become prime ministers and not just ministers in an Indian government" and most congressmen agree with that line of thought.
ganeshran Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 Apparently Mukul Vasnik and Ambika Soni have offered to resign in order to join the party organization and work for the growth of the party and some other ministers may also do the same. As for SM Krishna, it seems that he may be made President of Karnataka Congress because the state goes to polls in May next year. These offers to resign are all hogwash. They must have got the news that their posts are going to be given to someone else and hence are taking the moral high ground by claiming to work for the party. The nation doesnt deserve another rookie PM like Rajiv Gandhi. If Rahul has the capability to lead the nation, he should first prove it with a stint in a ministry. But you are right about the part of Congress not wanting to give him a cabinet portfolio which leaves him open to criticism by the opposition
Sachin=GOD Posted October 26, 2012 Author Posted October 26, 2012 RG as a minister? Not going to happen. Read this somewhere that some Gandhi family loyalists like Motilal Vora and RK Dhawan feel "Scions of Nehru-Gandhi family should only become prime ministers and not just ministers in an Indian government" and most congressmen agree with that line of thought. definitely looks like its true. Rahul Gandhi has had 8 years to join the Govt but he hasn't so it seems that he also feels that he doesn't have to prove himself. These offers to resign are all hogwash. They must have got the news that their posts are going to be given to someone else and hence are taking the moral high ground by claiming to work for the party. The nation doesnt deserve another rookie PM like Rajiv Gandhi. If Rahul has the capability to lead the nation, he should first prove it with a stint in a ministry. But you are right about the part of Congress not wanting to give him a cabinet portfolio which leaves him open to criticism by the opposition I don't think thats the case here because of 3 reasons: 1. Both of these ministers haven't done very badly. Ambika Soni might have had a few embarrassing moments in front of the camera but overall she hasn't done badly. 2. Many times a high position in the party is much more powerful than a mid level ministry - if both of them do resign then they will either become general secretaries in the AICC or in-charge of some important states - with elections fast approaching, both of these positions would be more powerful than ministry. 3. Also, they definitely would know that with elections coming, the party would need some senior leaders in the organizations so if they themselves volunteered to resign and work for the party then they would earn some brownie points with the-powers-that-be and thus if Kaangress retains power in 2014 they most certainly would get better portfolios than they currently have. Completely agree there. Sadly the Congress leaders and workers have assumed that he does have the capability to lead simply by having the Gandhi surname so he (like his father) doesn't need to prove himself :(
Sachin=GOD Posted October 28, 2012 Author Posted October 28, 2012 Manish Tewari as MoS (Independent charge) - I guess defending the party's corrupt leaders in the media does have its advantages!!!
Trichromatic Posted October 28, 2012 Posted October 28, 2012 Manish Tewari as MoS (Independent charge) - I guess defending the party's corrupt leaders in the media does have its advantages!!! Salman Khurshid might get external affairs ministry. Putting your life on platter for madamji also has advantages.
Sachin=GOD Posted October 28, 2012 Author Posted October 28, 2012 Shashi Twitteroor also makes a comeback.
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