Indian Prime Minister Inducts Seven New Ministers
07th April 2008
The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, expanded his cabinet on Sunday by making seven new ministers take oath of office.
President Pratibha Patil administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new Ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Prime Minister, as well as Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and Cabinet Ministers were also in attendance at the important ceremony.
The new Ministers include the former chief election commissioner M S Gill, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is the son of a former Congress party leader. Making up the rest of the new Ministers are Jitin Prasada, V Narayanasamy, Rameshwar Oraon, Santosh Bagrodia, and Rashtriya Janta Dal MP Raghunath Jha.
Prior to Mr Singh’s appointment of his new Ministers, six existing ministers handed in their resignation from the cabinet to Pratibha Patil. The politicians who resigned from the cabinet included Suresh Pachouri from the Ministry of State for Personnel, Dasari Narayan Rao of the Ministry of State for Coal, M V Rajasekharan from the Ministry of State for Planning, T Subbarami Reddy from the Ministry of State for Mines, Akhilesh Das of the Ministry of State for Steel, and Manikrao Gavit from the Ministry of State for Home Affairs.
In addition to these changes, southern Congress leader Manishankar Aiyer had the sports and youth affairs portfolio taken away from him, although the prominent politician still retains two others.
This significant cabinet reshuffle comes after the Prime Minister was accused of failing to have enough younger politicians in the cabinet. The Congress party - who lost five of seven state polls last year, as well as failing to gain power in three states this year - is trying to improve the organisation of its party to make it a much more attractive prospect for voters at next year’s federal elections.
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