24 Ministers sworn in as Union Cabinet Ministers; 34 as Ministers of State
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Thursday evening administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ramnath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in a glittering ceremony attended by world leaders, leaders from opposition parties and Bollywood stars.
Along with Modi 24 leaders were sworn in as the Union Cabinet Ministers while 34 others were sworn in as the Ministers of State.
24 member cabinet included BJP National President Amit Shah, while names like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Suresh Prabhu were missing from the list.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister DV Sadanand Gowda, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ram Vilas Paswan, Narendra Singh Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Harsimrat Kaur Badal were among the first few to take oath after PM Modi, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh.
Others in the 24 member Cabinet of PM Modi includes, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Smriti Irani, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Prahdhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Mahendranath Pandey, Giriraj Singh, Ganjendra Singh Shikhwat.
Six new faces were introduced in the cabinet including Party President Amit Shah who was not a part of the previous cabinet. The others being Dr. S Jaishankar, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Arjun Munda, Prahlad Joshi and Arvind Ganpat Sawant.
Apart from the cabinet 34 members of parliament were also administered the oath of office and secrecy which included names like Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Inderjit Singh, Shripad naik, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Kiran Rejiju, Prahlad Singh Patel, Rajkumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Poori, Mansukh Mandaviya, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, Arjun Ram Meghwal, V K Singh.
The others in the list includes Krishan Pal Gurjar, Danve Rao Saheb, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Gangapuram Kishan Reddy, Parshottam Rupala, Ramdas Athawale, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, babul Supriyo, Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan, Anurag Singh Thakur, V. Muralidharan.
The new faces in the list of Minister of States include Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao, Suresh Angadi, Nityanand Rai, Ratan Lal Kataria, V Muralidharan, Rameshwar Teli, Somprakash, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, kailash Choudhry and Deboshree Chowdhry.
Notable exclusions from the Ministers of the State included Rajyavardhan Rathore and Anant Kumar Hegde.
The event was attended by Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Hema Malini, Yogi Adityanath, Kangana Ranaut, Karan Johar, Shahid Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Shashi Tharoor and others.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Sujit Nair raises concerns over speculation of DMK-AIADMK understanding to block TVK
Chennai: Journalist and political commentator Sujit Nair has expressed concern over speculation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam could explore a post-poll understanding to prevent Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam from forming the government in Tamil Nadu.
In a social media post, Sujit Nair said the election verdict in Tamil Nadu reflected a clear public demand for political change and argued that the mandate should be respected irrespective of political preferences.
Referring to reports and political discussions surrounding a possible understanding between the DMK and AIADMK, he said he hoped such developments remained only speculative conversations and did not turn into reality.
Nair stated that if such an alliance were to take shape, it would raise serious questions about ideological politics in the country. He said TVK had emerged through a democratic electoral process and that the legitimacy to govern in a parliamentary democracy comes from the people’s verdict.
According to him, attempts to prevent an electoral winner from forming the government through unexpected political arrangements may be constitutionally valid, but many people could view them as politically opportunistic.
He further said that such a move could particularly affect the political image of the DMK, which has historically projected itself around ideology, social justice and opposition politics. Nair said that in ideological terms, the DMK appeared closer to TVK than to the AIADMK, and joining hands with its long-time political rival only to remain in power could weaken its broader political narrative.
He added that the same questions would apply to the AIADMK as well, as the party had spent decades positioning itself against the DMK and such an arrangement could create discomfort among its cadre and supporters.
Drawing a comparison with Maharashtra politics in 2019, Nair said he had expressed similar views when the Shiv Sena formed an alliance with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after the Assembly elections.
He said post-poll alliances between long-standing political rivals often create a public perception that ideology and electoral mandates become secondary when political power equations come into play.
Nair also said such developments increase public cynicism towards politics and reinforce the belief among voters that ideology is often sidelined after elections.
He maintained that the Tamil Nadu verdict was emphatic and said respecting both the spirit and substance of the mandate was important for the credibility of democratic politics.
