Cabinet shuffle: The big four untouched
The cabinet reshuffle has taken place on Tuesday, July 22 in New Delhi. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh kept the key ministries unchanged- home, finance, external affairs and defence. Jairam Ramesh who was assigned ministry of rural development was amongst the four ministers who got elevated, other being V Kishore Chandra Deo (Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj), Beni Prasad Verma (Steel) and Dinesh Trivedi (railways).
Seven ministers that were dropped out are Murli Deora, MS Gill, Kanti Lal Bhuria, Dayanidhi Maran, BK Handique, A Sai Prathap and Arun S Yadav. M Veerappa Moily was assigned Corporate Affairs while Salman Khurshid filled in his place for Law.
Manmohan Singh confirmed in a statement that this would be the last reshuffle before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls drawing negative remarks from opposition and critics alike. However two slots have been kept reserved for DMK as per the coalition tradition.
The reshuffle which was promised by Prime Minister to be substantial and balanced held little significance in the eyes of BJP as the top slots remained unchanged. BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy dismissed the reshuffle saying, “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”. The new ministers inducted included Milind Deora for communication and IT, Jayanthi Natarajan and Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandopdhyaya amongst others.
The comprehensive list of Cabinet Ministers:
Shri Sharad Pawar | Agriculture and Food Processing Industries |
Virbhadra Singh | Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises |
Vilasrao Deshmukh | Rural Development with additional charge of Panchayati Raj |
S Jaipal Reddy | Petroleum and Natural Gas |
Kamal Nath | Urban Development |
Vayalar Ravi | Overseas Indian Affairs with additional charge of Civil Aviation |
Murli Deora | Corporate Affairs |
Kapil Sibal | Human Resource Development with additional charge of Communications and Information Technology |
B K Handique | Development of North-Eastern Region |
C P Joshi | Road Transport and Highways |
Kumari Selja | Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation with additional charge of Culture |
Subodh Kant Sahay | Tourism |
M S Gill | Statistics and Programme Implementation |
Pawan Kumar Bansal | Parliamentary Affairs with additional charge of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences |
By:
Tabassum
