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PM's message in rejig: Controversy no substitute for good work
IANS 06 July 2016
Economy & Nation
Giving a clear message that controversy is no substitute for good work, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday removed his one-time handpicked high-profile Smriti Irani from the crucial Human Resource Development Ministry and gave her the responsibility of the low-profile Textiles Ministry.
 
This is being viewed as a snub as Irani, a Rajya Sabha member, was personally chosen by Modi to run the HRD ministry in 2014 despite the move getting red flagged by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
 
However, Irani's stint has been marred by major controversies over protests in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in Delhi and also the students' protest over the death of scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad.
 
Angry protests and campus violence have been reported from various other universities too.
 
The role of the RSS in getting the former TV actress-turned-politician divested of one of the sought after portfolios is not ruled out as the Prime Minister carried out the exercise after repeated consultations with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley among others.
 
Shah reportedly reached out to the RSS leaders and took their inputs.
 
Seeking to give a message that he is sensitive to popular will and also to the wishes of RSS leadership, Modi brought in Javadekar, originally a Pune-based politician, for the crucial responsibility of handling the HRD ministry.
 
Javadekar as Environment Minister seemed to have left a positive impact on Prime Minister and the Sangh Parivar leadership with his industry-friendly moves, carrying out of Swach Bharat campaign in a mission mode and also pursuing environment diplomacy at the international level on climate change and related matters.
 
Javadekar is also credited with bringing the National and state Compensatory Afforestation Fund, paving the way to unlocking of nearly Rs.41,000 crore earmarked for forest land, lying unspent.
 
In fact after the passage of the bill in Lok Sabha on May 3 with support from major opposition parties, even Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had appreciated that the draft legislation was passed unanimously with members from different parties making their positive contribution by way of suggestions to improve the system.
 
In contrast to Javadekar, Smriti Irani has been mostly in controversies either against Congress, Trinamool Congress and Left leaders besides occasional skirmishes with the Sangh Parivar elements.
 
Besides found engaging in heated exchange of words with opposition members in Parliament, Irani did not quite go well with RSS leaders too.
 
Sources said during their both formal and informal consultation process, RSS leaders along with a few members from Sangh-affiliated educational bodies reportedly often found that as HRD Minister, Smiriti Irani was not quite easy to deal with.
 
Following is the list of Council of Ministers and their portfolios as announced by President Pranab Mukherjee on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space
All important policy issues,
and all other portfolios not allocated to any Minister
 
CABINET MINISTERS
 
Rajnath Singh Home Affairs
 
Sushma Swaraj External Affairs
 
Arun Jaitley Finance, Corporate Affairs
 
M. Venkaiah Naidu Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Information & Broadcasting
 
Nitin Jairam Gadkari Road Transport and Highways, Shipping
 
Manohar Parrikar Defence
 
Suresh Prabhu Railways
 
D.V. Sadananda Gowda Statistics & Programme Implementation
 
Uma Bharati Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
 
Najma A. Heptulla Minority Affairs
 
Ramvilas Paswan Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
 
Kalraj Mishra Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
 
Maneka Sanjay Gandhi Women and Child Development
 
Ananth Kumar Chemicals and Fertilisers, Parliamentary Affairs
 
Ravi Shankar Prasad Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology
 
Jagat Prakash Nadda Health & Family Welfare
 
Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati Civil Aviation
 
Anant Geete Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
 
Harsimrat Kaur Badal Food Processing Industries
 
Narendra Singh Tomar Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation
 
Chaudhary Birender Singh Steel
 
Jual Oram Tribal Affairs
 
Radha Mohan Singh Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
 
Thaawar Chand Gehlot Social Justice and Empowerment
 
Smriti Zubin Irani Textiles
 
Harsh Vardhan Science and Technology, Earth Sciences
 
Prakash Javadekar Human Resource Development
 
MINISTERS OF STATE
 
Rao Inderjit Singh Planning (Independent Charge), Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
 
Bandaru Dattatreya Labour and Employment (Independent Charge)
 
Rajiv Pratap Rudy Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge)
 
Vijay Goel Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge), Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
 
Shripad Yesso Naik AAYUSH (Independent Charge)
 
Dharmendra Pradhan Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
 
Piyush Goyal Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge), Mines (Independent Charge)
 
Jitendra Singh Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), Prime Minister's Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space
 
Nirmala Sitharaman Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)
 
Mahesh Sharma Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge)
 
Manoj Sinha Communications (Independent Charge), Railways
 
Anil Madhav Dave Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)
 
General V.K. Singh External Affairs
 
Santosh Kumar Gangwar Finance
 
Faggan Singh Kulaste Health & Family Welfare
 
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi Minority Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs
 
S.S. Ahluwalia Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Parliamentary Affairs
 
Ramdas Athawale Social Justice & Empowerment
 
Ram Kripal Yadav Rural Development
 
Haribhai Parthbhai Chaudhary Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
 
Giriraj Singh Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
 
Hansraj Gangaram Ahir Home Affairs
 
G.M. Siddeshwara Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises
 
Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi Drinking Water & Sanitation
 
Rajen Gohain Railways
 
Parshottam Rupala Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Panchayati Raj
 
M.J. Akbar External Affairs
 
Upendra Kushwaha Human Resources Development
 
Radhakrishnan P. Road Transport & Highways, Shipping
 
Kiren Rijiju Home Affairs
 
Krishan Pal Social Justice & Empowerment
 
Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor Tribal Affairs
 
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
 
Vishnu Deo Sai Steel
 
Sudarshan Bhagat Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
 
Y.S. Chowdary Science and Technology, Earth Science
 
Jayant Sinha Civil Aviation
 
Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore Information & Broadcasting
 
Babul Supriyo Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
 
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti Food Processing Industries
 
Vijay Sampla Social Justice & Empowerment
 
Arjun Ram Meghwal Corporate Affairs
 
Mahendra Nath Pandey Human Resource Development
 
Ajay Tamta Textiles 
 
Krishna Raj Women & Child Development
 
Mansukh L. Mandaviya Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Chemicals & Fertilizers
 
Anupriya Patel Health & Family Welfare
 
C.R. Chaudhary Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
 
P.P. Chaudhary Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology
 
Subhash Ramrao Bhamre Defence
 
Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.
Comments
Srinivas Sreeram
10 years ago
Every ministry to should put forth on its website the agenda for entire five years with split up for each year. The issues relating to the ministry and what is their road map . Even today India does not have database for convicted criminals ... so much for a IT savvy country !!! the websites of educational institutes is very pathetic to the point of being trash. There is no list of recognized institutes, their status, approved or accredited courses, staff or classroom or infrastructure set up..... NO forms available with many educational institutes have got into "frozen" mode for the website is not updated since 2011 or before. They are dead. Make it mandatory for each institute to have a working website & penalize them heavily. NTR university in Vijayawada the website seems to be designed by a kindergarten school kid. & we talk of performance of BJP govt or its ministries. They are no different from Khangress. Same rotten stuff.
Reply
Srinivas Sreeram
10 years ago
smrithi irani or any other minister in this BJP govt., have no vision or roadmap for their allocated ministries and just getting along with the work as it comes by is NO roadmap. Infact they did not do their own ground work nor understood the priorities or issues in each ministry. Education ministry has so much to do i.e. common syllabus, common exams, remove the power of universities giving certificates, conduct a centralized exam for each year and anyone who passes only will be given certificates and license to practise their trades. Let each college or education institution get recognized based on their own teaching merits and be rated along those lines. Surprising & disgusting to see 1950's syllabus is untouched and same rotten stuff being told & retold & taught to students.
Reply
Shrikant Dattatraya Sahasrabuddhe
10 years ago
Moneylife should have put a disclaimer about JNU & Vemula remarks.
Reply
MDT
Replied to Shrikant Dattatraya Sahasrabuddhe comment 10 years ago
Thanks for your comment. We already have a disclaimer just below the article for external news feeds.
Reply
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