The central government on Tuesday changed the composition of the Niti Aayog. Ministers from NDA allies like JD-S, JDU, and TDP were included in the reconstitution as either special invitees or ex-officio members, a major change since the last reconstitution which majorly included BJP members. Including members from the ally parties shows the spirit of the coalition in a democracy.
New Composition
The new composition includes a Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, four full-time members, four ex-officio members, and eleven special invitees which are as follows:
Chairperson and Vice Chairperson
The chairperson will continue to be the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, whereas Suman K Bery, an experienced policy economist, will continue to hold the position of Vice Chairperson.
Full-time members
The full-time members will also remain as they were before which include Ramesh Chand (a renowned agricultural economist), Arvind Virmani (a macroeconomist), VK Paul (a pediatrician), and VK Saraswat (a distinguished scientist).
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Ex-officio members
The ex-officio members include Amit Shah (Home Minister), Nirmala Sitaraman (Finance Minister), Rajnath Singh (Defence Minister), and Shivraj Singh Chauhan (Agriculture Minister).
Special Invitees
The special of the think tank includes HD Kumaraswamy (HD Kumaraswamy Minister), Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport and Highways Minister), Jitan Ram Manjhi (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister), Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh (Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying Minister), Virendra Kumar (Social Justice and Empowerment Minister), Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu (Civil Aviation Minister), Jual Oram (Tribal Affairs Minister), Annpurna Devi (Women and Child Development Minister), Chirag Paswan (Food Processing Industries Minister) and Rao Inderjit Singh (Statistics and Programme Implementation Minister).
Many top ministers not included
Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw (Railways Minister ) and Piyush Goyal (Minister of Commerce and Industry) were special invitees in Niti Aayog. They are not included in the reconstituted think tank. Nitin Gadkari (Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India), Virendra Kumar (Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment) and Rao Inderjit Singh (Minister of Planning and Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation) were special invitees earlier too.
Ally Parties Members
Previously, Niti Aayog had only 5 special invitees, but this time, it has 11, including members from ally parties. In June 2019, when the Niti Aayog was reformed, it had just four special invitees, all of whom were BJP ministers, even though Ram Vilas Paswan and Harsimrat Kaur Badal, government alliance partners, were also in the Cabinet. Mr. Kumaraswamy is a member of JD-S, a partner of NDA. Mr. Manjhi represents Hindustani Awam Morcha, while Rajiv Ranjan Singh is from JD-U. Naidu is affiliated with TDP and Paswan belongs to Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas).
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Priyanka Chaturvedi criticises NDA
Succeeding the reshuffle of Niti Aayog, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi criticized the central government for not including MPs from Shiv Sena. “When Niti is only to stay in power by hook or by crook one should be happy with crumbs thrown their way”, the Rajya Sabha MP wrote on Twitter. No members from the party were included in the reshuffle even though it’s the third largest ally in NDA. Even though HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) has 2 MPs, they were included as special invitees.
About the Author
Ms Eesha Priyadarshini, an aspiring civil servant, is currently a student of political science at LSR, DU. She likes covering news related to politics, religion, and international relations with utmost neutrality and sincerity.
