Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday joined the list of ministers who tendered their resignations ahead of the major Cabinet expansion-cum-reshuffle.
Before the reshuffle and expansion, President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignations of 12 ministers, including Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Sadananda Gowda, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, and Santosh Kumar Gangwar.
Several other ministers including Babul Supriyo, Debasree Chaudhuri, Rattan Lal Kataria, Sanjay Dhotre, Pratap Chandra Sarangi (MoS) and Ashwini Chaubey (MoS) also tendered their resignation.
Among the top leaders to exit the Narendra Modi cabinet is Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who was at the forefront of the Modi government’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. His resignation from the health ministry has come at a time even as the second wave of Covid-19 is underway and a probable third wave likely to hit the country in September. However, during his tenure as the Union health minister, Vardhan had courted several controversies, including inaugurating FMCG company Patanjali›s controversial anti-Covid kit Coronil in the presence of Yoga practitioner Ramdev. It›s not clear as to what motivated the change in leadership of the health ministry at this crucial time.
Pokhriyal’s exit is surprising given that the Union Minister for Education has been at the forefront in implementing the new education policy-related changes. The education ministry under Pokhriyal also made significant gains in online education making both contents as well as courses available for free to students across the country amid the pandemic.
Pokhriyal, who tested positive for Covid-19 on 21 April, was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi in June again following post-Covid complications. He has resigned from his post citing health reasons, sources said. The former Uttarakhand chief minister took charge as the HRD minister in May 2019.
The other ministers who have quit include Minister of State for Women and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar and Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre. Dhotre, who represents the Akola Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, also took charge as the MoS for Education, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology in May 2019. Chaudhuri submitted her resignation in the morning, one of her close aides said. She was elected to the Lok Sabha from West Bengal’s Raiganj constituency in the 2019 general elections. Gangwar said he is not aware of what his new role in the government will be.
Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thawarchand Gehlot had taken over as the Governor of Karnataka on Tuesday, and had told the media that he would resign on Wednesday as the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment.
With agency inputs