Indian PM Reshuffles Cabinet

2011-07-12

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh carried out his much talked about reshuffle Tuesday bringing in eight new faces in the Union Council of Ministers including four in the Cabinet.

Singh has included V. Kishore Chandra Deo, Beni Prasad Verma, Dinesh Trivedi and Jairam Ramesh into the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) cabinet while dropping a few who were seen as non- performers.

Kapil Sibal has been retained as the Minister of Human Resource Development and Minister of Communications and Information Technology while two news faces - Milind Deora and Rajiv Shukla have been made Ministers of State.

Deo has been made the Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj Minister while Beni Prasad Verma Steel has been elevated as the Minister of Steel. Verma was earlier the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Steel.

The Railways Ministry has remained with the Trinamool Congress with Dinesh Trivedi getting the portfolio. Jairam Ramesh, who was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, has been elevated as the Minister of Rural Development.

Meanwhile, the first signs of discontent over the reshuffle carried out in the Union Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday have started to surface.

Sources say Congress leaders Srikant Jena and Gurudas Kamat are unhappy with their portfolios. The duo also gave the swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan (President's House) in New Delhi Tuesday evening a miss.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has failed to reassure the nation with his "damp squib" cabinet reshuffle.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's much acclaimed and awaited reshuffle has proven to be a damp squib. It is a futile exercise which inspires none and in no way dispels the gloom shadowing the embattled United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said here.

Congress's ally party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party chief M. Karunanidhi Tuesday said that the reshuffle carried out by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not over and the party will decide on its nominees after its General Council meeting on July 23.

The DMK party did not seek replacements for former telecom minister A Raja and former textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran.

"The reshuffle is not complete yet. Will comment on it after it is formally announced. We did not ask for any replacement portfolios from Pranab Mukherjee," Karunanidhi said in Chennai, state capital of Tamil Nadu.

Source: CRIEnglish.
Link: http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/07/12/1461s648045.htm.