Cong likens Cabinet to senior citizens’ club

The Congress on Sunday took a dig at the induction of four former bureaucrats in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, saying it showed that he did not trust his political colleagues.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari described the nine new ministers as a “senior citizens’ club”, pointing out that while the average age of a person in the country was 27 years, the median age of the new entrants was 60.44 years. Talking to mediapersons, he claimed Modi was “strangely disconnected” from the Cabinet reshuffle exercise.

“It seems that BJP president Amit Shah is the PM,” said Mr Tewari, referring to reports claiming Mr Shah summoned the ministers and asked them to resign before the rejig. He also termed the expansion as “maximum government and minimum governance”.

The Cabinet rejig saw the induction of nine new faces. Among them were four former bureaucrats, two of whom — former IAS officer Alphons Kannanthanam and former diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri — are not Members of Parliament. Ex-Mumbai police commissioner Satypal Singh and former Union home secretary R.K. Singh were also sworn in.

“This reflects that the PM doesn’t trust his political colleagues,” Mr Tewari said. He also accused the BJP of including in the Cabinet a “doctor beater” with aan aim to “communalise” Karnataka, ahead of the state Assembly polls next year.

On removal of Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Kalaraj Mishra as ministers for skill development and micro, small and medium enterprises, respectively, the Congress leader said the ouster reflected acceptance of the Modi government’s “gigantic failure”.

However, reacting to Congress’ allegation that Modi didn’t trust his political colleagues and inducted four former bureaucrats, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said, “How can UPA say this? Their own Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) had come from the same background.” He said today was a “great day” for the country as two women had become part of the Cabinet Committee on Security.