India’s Modi enacts major cabinet reshuffle

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reshuffled his cabinet, replacing 12 ministers, including those in charge of health and information technology, amid criticism over a range of issues, including the handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The 12 cabinet ministers were sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in the presidential palace on Wednesday. Twenty eight junior ministers also took oaths as ministers of states in the same ceremony.

Modi’s cabinet reshuffle came at a time when the government has been facing criticism over its handling of COVID-19, economic turmoil, and feuds with foreign social media giants.

Opposition leader P Chidambaram said the removal of the health minister and his deputy was a sign that the Modi government had failed in controlling the pandemic. “There is a lesson for ministers in these resignations. If things go right, the credit will go to the PM, if things go wrong, the minister will be the fall guy,” he said.

The Indian government is strongly criticized by domestic and international experts for the managing of India’s COVID-19 outbreak and its economic and social side effects.

As the country attempts to speed its vaccination program, India has logged more than 400,000 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began, the world’s third-highest death toll, behind the US and Brazil.

More than half of those deaths occurred during the past two months as the Delta variant of the virus spread around the world and as millions remained unvaccinated. Experts believe the actual number of the deaths in India may be much higher, and there are fears of another wave coming soon.

The Wednesday reshuffle was the first by Prime Minister Modi since he won a second term in elections in May 2019. And it was the biggest since he came to power in 2014.

SS