While BJP and its supporters have wanted the focus to be on new entrant and technocrats and professionals, the women and caste rainbow, media attention have inevitably remained focused on the exits.

But if there is any one message that emerges from the ministerial reshuffle, ironically, this. Ministers have never mattered less in politics in India. Since the ascent of Narendra Modi in May 2014, the country’s electoral choices, at least, on the national stage have been moving towards a Presidential variation on a Parliamentary democracy. Without a strong and compelling protagonist at the heart of story, it is almost impossible to script a imaginative political drama any longer, whether in the states or at the centre.

This may counterintuitive in the face of such significant alternations to the Council of Ministers. But think about it. The removal of 12 ministers has one singular aim—to delink Brand Modi from the perceived inefficiencies, failures and controversies of his government.

With these changes, the Prime Minister’s aim is to keep history unsullied and suggest as a man in the leading role, he was let down by his supporting group.

That Harsh Vardhan has been shown the door in the aftermath of the lethal second wave is no better brainer. Yet, everybody knows that the accountability for callousness and the clumsiness of the government’s response, especially in early stages, can hardly be placed at his door alone. As a health minister Harsh Vardhan was bumbling was competent for sure, but was empowered enough to take many decisions whether on vaccine procurement or cancellation of mass congregations.

There in lies the tale. Amidst mass grave of abandoned Covid-19 bodies, anger among BJP voters over the storage and ICUs beds and soaring prices, these changes to cabinet appear to be PM’s attempt to reclaim the narrative at a time when the electoral consequences of the pandemic are still unclear.

It is hard to believe either Ravi Shankar Prasad as Law and IT minister or Prakash Javadekar, in-charge of Information and broadcasting ministry respectively had taken a big companies as twitter or formulated contentious new digital content lines without any nudging from top.

With the next elections three years away and Covind-19 dragging the BJP into unchartered waters, more than else, the PM’s attention is focused on elections. Brand Modi needs a win in U.P. in 2022 to remain unchallenged. The number of ministers from UP (15) and Gujarat, due to assembly polls, tells only half the story.

The electorate caste configuration of the cabinet reinforces the growing mandalisation of the BJP politics. The careful engineering representation seeks to shrug a Brahmin tag. With its representation not just on Dalit representation but also on middle castes, the party understands the other Backward classes (OBCs) is the layer over which Hindutva politics has to be construed. (IPA Service)