Just a year to go for the next lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday carried out a surprise reshuffle in his Council of Ministers shunting out Smriti Irani from the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry, apparently for her continued face-offs with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati and her controversial attempt to rein in journalists on the pretext of tackling “fake news”. While Irani is now left only with the Textile portfolio, her deputy Rajyvardhan Singh Rathore is the new I&B Minister with Independent charge. This is Modi’s fourth rejig in his four years in office.
With Finance Minister Arun Jaitley having successfully undergone a kidney transplant during the day in AIIMS, the late evening rejig too saw Railway Minister Piyush Goyal being given the additional charge of the Ministries of Finance and Corporate Affairs. Incidentally, Goyal also holds the key portfolio of Coal. He will be in charge of the twin responsibilities “during the period of Jaitley’s indisposition”.
The reshuffle further saw Minister of State SS Ahluwalia being relieved of his charge in the Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry and assigned the portfolio of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology in the same capacity in place of Alphons Kannanthanam. The latter is now left with the portfolio of Culture and Tourism.
Besides its media blitzkrieg plans for the run-up to the 2019 lok Sabha polls, the elevation of Rathore, an MP from Jaipur Rural, is being seen as showcasing Rajasthan, which is going to elections later this year.
As for Irani, this is the second time that she has been relieved of a key portfolio, the first being in 2016 when she was shown the door from the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, where too she had her share of controversies. During her two-year tenure, she hogged the limelight for all the wrong reasons like her handling of the Rohith Vemula case or JNU controversy. She was even in line of Opposition fire for her educational qualifications’ claims.
Her ouster from the I&B Ministry in just eight months seems to have been hastened due to her run-ins with the media as also with the Prasar Bharati. Her Ministry’s move to punish journalists for fake news had led to a furore with the media fraternity terming it an attempt to curb its freedom. left red-faced, the Government moved swiftly to cancel the order following Modi’s personal intervention.
Then again, Irani’s attempts at imposing her decision on appointments to senior editorial posts at Prasar Bharati were stalled by the public broadcaster, which found the proposed pay packages to the journalists exorbitant and unjustifiable. It also saw it as a move impinging on its autonomy. This triggered further face-offs between the two sides like the issue of payments to NFDC over the coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2017 International Film Festival of India. The Ministry was even accused of withholding the salaries of Doordarshan and All India Radio, resulting in the Congress going full steam against the Government over the issue.
Another possibility, however, being discussed is that Irani’s burden may have been eased so that her services are taken for poll campaigns across the key States like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh this year and the general elections next year. The last rejig had seen Modi elevating four into Cabinet rank, including giving India its first full-time woman Defence Minister in the form of Nirmala Sitharaman, and inducting nine new faces into his team.