After a shocking exit from 12 Union Ministers, including health minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, I&B minister Prakash Javadekar and HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, two new faces are being seen in the new Union Cabinet. Both are former bureaucrats who later turned into politicians and are now inducted into the Union Cabinet as part of a major overhaul of the council of ministers affected on Wednesday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The first one who administered the oath as Cabinet Minister was Ashwini Vaishnaw. Vaishnaw, an Odisha cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, joined the BJP just six days after the Rajya Sabha elections on June 28, 2019. He served in Odisha till 2003 and performed his duties in various capacities. In 2003, he got appointed as the deputy secretary in the office of former prime minister (late) Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was later appointed as the latter’s private secretary after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lost the election in 2004.
Similarly, former bureaucrat Ram Chandra Prasad Singh who hails from Bihar’s Nalanda district also got inducted in the new Union Cabinet. A UP cadre IAS officer, Singh, was working on central deputation till the time he was brought back to his homeland by Nitish Kumar and was appointed as his Principal Secretary. Singh made his political debut in 2010 as he became a Member of the Rajya Sabha from Bihar on a JD(U) ticket. He is also the current National President of JD(U).
Besides them, bureaucrat-turned politician Raj Kumar Singh has been elevated as a Cabinet Minister from Minister of State rank and has been given the Ministry of Power and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy department. Whereas, former bureaucrat Hardeep Puri has been given the additional charge of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will continue as Minister of External Affairs. Lastly, former IAS officer Som Prakash will hold the Ministry of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. In addition to these six former bureaucrats, Ajit Doval currently National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, who is also a former IPS officer, has been inducted to the rank of Cabinet Minister. Lastly, former IAS officer Arjun Ram Meghwal will be the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in the Second Modi ministry.
