New Delhi: Narendra Modi’s Cabinet and bureaucratic machinery oozes signs of a perfect balance of perfomers , institutional memory and who can drive the agenda for India on a fast track.
Modi’s brain trust Arun Jaitley has been given Finance and Defence, Smriti Irani, HRD, Ravi Shankar Prasad Law and Telecom, Piyush Goyal Power have all been given key ministries. He has done some balancing act by including Rajnath Singh to the crucial Home Ministry while Sushma Swaraj managed to be a member of the key Cabinet Committee on Security by being the external affairs minister.
The choice of Nripendra Mishra as the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister demonstrates that Modi will value institutional memory given Mishra’s credentials as a bureaucrat with good network and ability to steer through the political spectrum.
A perfect regional balance has been done with Ministers from all states from UP to Arunachal Pradesh, woman power has come to the fore with Sushma Swaraj, Najma Heptullah, Uma Bharati, Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman, Maneka Gandhi have been accomodated and Modi has included a lean Council of 44 Ministers compared to UPA’s 77. Â
Former Army Chief VK Singh has been named the Minister for State for External Affairs and has independent charge for the North East realising that the former Army Chief can make a difference on the boundary with China. Party satraps like Uma Bharati, Venkaih Naidu, have all been included.Â
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