Two former IAS officers, an ex-IPS officer and an ex-diplomat, who made it to the Modi Council of Ministers on Sunday, have not been given portfolios of their domain areas.
With the induction of Raj Kumar Singh (former Home Secretary), Hardeep Singh Puri (former diplomat), Satyapal Singh (former Mumbai Police Commissioner) and Alphons (former Commissioner Delhi Development Authority) — the number of former bureaucrats and ex-servicemen in the Modi Government has risen to seven. Satyapal Singh (an Indian Police Service officer) has been given Human Resource Development (HRD) portfolio, Puri ( an Indian Foreign Service officer) allocated Urban and Housing Development, RK Singh (Indian Administrative Service) awarded with power and Alphons, the famed “demolition man”, got Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
There seems to be a mismatch between their ‘talent areas’ and their Cabinet parking.
The other three Ministers from bureaucratic or military background are former Army chief Gen (retd) V K Singh, Col (retd) Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Arjun Ram Meghwal, a former IAS officer from Rajasthan.
VK Singh, the lok Sabha MP from Ghaziabad, is MoS in the External Affairs Ministry. Former Olympian trap shooter Rathore is MoS with independent charge of Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry. He also holds the charge of MoS in Information and Broadcasting Ministry.