NEW DELHI: Chandra Shekhar finally expanded his 11day old ministry inducing 33 members and retained the vital portfolios of defence, home and information and broadcasting, on Nov 21.
Veteran politician Vidya Charan Shukla who has held various portfolios in the Indira Gandhi ministry is the new external affairs minister. He comes to the federal cabinet after nine years.
Soon after the swearing in, Shukla left with the prime minister for male, the Maldivian capital, to attend the SAARC summit.
Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal who took oath with Chandra Shekhar on November 10 gets agricultural and tourism in the 32member three -tier council of ministers.
Following is the list of India’s union council of ministers after it was expanded with the induction of 33 members today:
1 Chandra Shekhar, prime minister, defence, I and B, home and all the portfolios not allocated.
2 Devi Lal, agriculture and tourism.
3 V.C. Shukla, external affairs
4 Subramanian Swamy, commerce, Law and Justice
5 Yashwant Sinha, Finance.
6 S.P. Malviya, Petroleum and chemicals and Parliamentary affairs,
7 Shakul Ur Rehman, Health and Family Welfare.
8 Janeshwar Mishra, Railways
9 Rajmangal Pande, HRD
10 Hukum Dey Narain Singh, Textiles and Food Processing
11 Kalyan Singh Kalvi, Energy
12 Manubhai Kotadia, Water Resources
13 Daulat Ram Saran, Urban Development
14 AK. Sen, Steel and Mines
15 Rao Birendra Singh, Food and Civil Supplies
16 Maneka Gandhi, Environment and Forests
17 Sanjay Singh, Communications
18 Harmohan Dhawan, Civil Aviation
Ministers of State
19 Subodh Kant Sahay, Home and J and B
20 Bhakt Charan Das, Railways
21 Bhagey Goverdhan, HRD
22 Dhankar, Law and Justice
23 Usha Singh, Tourism
24 Sarwar Hussain, Food and Civil supplies
25 Ramji Lal Suman, Labor and Welfare
26 Jayantilal Shah, Agriculture
27 Baban Rao Dhakne, Energy
28 Kamal Moraka, Mos in PM’s office
29 Basav Raj Patil, Steel and Mines
30 Lalit Vijay Singh, Defence
31 Ram Bahadur, Rural Development
32 Dig Vijay Narain Singh, Finance:
33 Desai Chaudhary, Health and Family Welfare
34 Shantilal Patel, Commerce
35 Jai Prakash, Petroleum and Chemicals
The swearing in ceremony in the ornate Ashoka Hall of the presidential palace, Rashtrapati Bhavan, televised live was marred by slogan shouting and protest by milling media persons who were manhandled by security personnel.
The prime minister told reporters before leaving for Male that he would induct some members of the supporting parties and some others in the next round of his ministry’s expansion a little later.
Except Dr Subramanian Swamy, working president of the Janata Party (JP), who gets commerce and law and justice, all other ministers belong to the breakaway Janata Dal.
A former officer in the IAS Yashwant Sinha who played key role in the Janat Dal’s split becomes the new finance minister.
Janeshwar Mishra, a former socialist leader and communications minister in the V P Singh government, gets railways.
Veteran congressman Rajmangal Pandey who has been allotted human resource development had resigned his lower house seat in favour of former premier V P Singh and later switched loyalties.
Ardent environmentalist Maneka Gandhi, the first to quit the V.P.Singh government, retums to environment and forest ministry as minister of state with independent charge.
Daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, she is one of the few women politicians in the country.
Sanjay Singh, a close relative of V.P. Singh, gets independent charge of communication. The former prince has recently been equal ted of charges of conspiring with ace badminton player Syed Modi’s wife to murder Modi.
An industrialist turned politician Harmohan Dhavan who has independent charge of civil aviation ministry, broke away from V P Singh in protest against his policies.
Of the eight ministers who resigned from the national front government, seven find berth in the new ministry. The only exception being Jagdeep Dhankar, former deputy minister.
Janeshwar Mishra and Manu Bhai Kotadia, ministers of state in V.P.Singh government, get cabinet rank while Usha Singh and Bhakta Charan Das, former deputy ministers, become ministers of state.
- Sen and Rao Birendra’s Singh, who were once members of the Rajiv Gandhi government, were also sworn in. They were allocated steel and mines and food and civil supplies portfolios respectively.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 30, 1990
