JNU, DU get more weight in Modi govt with reshuffle
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU) have reason to celebrate the reshuffle in the Narendra Modi government as alumni of the two institutions added weight to the ministry on Sunday.
JNU alumna Nirmala Sitharaman’s elevation as the defence minister from minister of state for commerce came as a surprise and the university’s vice-chancellor Jagadesh Kumar immediately took to Twitter to congratulate her.
“JNU community is proud that the new defence minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman is an alumna of JNU. Congratulations,” he said.
Sitharaman did her MA (Economics) and MPhil from JNU and will now be part of the PM-chaired Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which already has two DU alumni — Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley.
Jaitley was an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader who went on to become the Delhi University Students’ Union president in 1974.
The other two ministers in the CCS are home minister Rajnath Singh, who graduated from Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, a Panjab University degree holder.
Notably, Maneka Gandhi, the women and child development minister, is an alumna of both DU and JNU. She went to Lady Shri Ram College for Women and later studied German at JNU.
Sitharaman and Gandhi are the only two ministers from JNU, a top-ranking social sciences varsity which was roiled in a controversy due to student protests last year. Among the ministers of state (independent charge) inducted on Sunday, Dr Hardeep Puri, former Indian diplomat to the United Nations, and Raj Kumar Singh, former Union home secretary, are DU alumni. Singh studied at St Stephens and Puri at Hindu college, both affiliated to DU. Puri later lectured at St Stephens.
Former Mumbai police commissioner Satya Pal Singh, who was made minister of state (human resource development; and water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation) is also a DU alumni. Vijay Goel, who was shifted to parliamentary affairs and statistics ministries, went to Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) of DU. Other DU alumni are Kiren Rijiju, Mahesh Sharma, Rao Inderjit Singh and Anupriya Patel.