For the last few days the news that a reshuffle of the union cabinet was on the cards was doing the rounds. However, it must be a very few in the political and bureaucratic circles who anticipated that the extent would have been such huge and so many heavyweights would be ‘uprooted’ and the exit would be so unceremonious. The reasons for this ‘radical change’ are now being deeply discussed and will keep the political analysts busy for the coming few days. However, the message by the Modi government is loud and clear- it wants to regain people’s confidence that arguably has dipped following the Covid pandemic and with 2024 elections as the target, the cabinet rejig perhaps marks the beginning of the process.

It will need a time-consuming homework to dig out when such a major restructuring process of the union ministers took place and that too preceded by en masse resignations. By now, thanks to the tweets by a few losers of posts, the ‘story’, at least for many behind the resignations are now public. Among all the major changes, the one that of health Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has formed the centerpiece of talks. Clearly, the way the pandemic was handled and the public anger that has been generated due to this hasn’t gone down well with the central leadership of the BJP and as it happens, the coach is always axed when a team fails to perform. Not only the Health Minister, there are at least 12 ministers who have been shown the door and that include very active faces such as IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad,  Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar. While it will take time to make assessments of the reasons, explicit or implicit, for these ministers’ exit, one can have a feeling that from now onwards, keeping in mind the 2024 general elections and the states’ ones in between, the ruling government will give performance as the principal determinant for staying, rather than loyalty to leaders or even the Hindutva ideology. The ‘enlightenment’ perhaps has ushered in after the West Bengal assembly elections debacle, a poll that was largely fought over the pan-national issues of Covid mismanagement, price rise and other usual ones than concerning the state itself. Kiren Rijiju finally getting a cabinet berth will obviously make Arunachal Pradesh proud and it was actually long due. And with a large number of OBCs, dalits, youths and a fair representation of women which now gives the cabinet the hue of a rainbow, the idea of inclusiveness that was missing has been given a new push forward.

It will not be surprising if more changes take place sooner than later. From an organised party like BJP which will not take any chances for 2024, such moves are natural.