A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi distributed portfolios to his ministers, a number of leaders including S Jaishankar and Ashwini Vaishnaw took charge of their duties on Tuesday.
Jaishankar and Vaishnaw are among the BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari and Nirmala Sitharaman who retained the ministries they handled in the previous government. Vaishnaw has also been given additional duties as Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the third term of the Modi government.
Addressing the media after taking charge, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar expressed “immense honour” to be once again given the responsibility of leading the Ministry of External Affairs.
“In the last term, this ministry performed exceptionally well. We delivered the G20 presidency. We took on the challenges of COVID including, Vaccine Maitri supplies. We also were the centre of crucial operations like Operation Ganga and Operation Kaveri. In the last decade, this ministry under the leadership of PM Modi has become a very people-centric ministry. You can see that in terms of our improved passport services, community welfare fund support that we give to Indians abroad…,” said Jaishankar.
Jaishankar said, in these turbulent times, India is a country which is trusted by many and he believes it will position India as a ‘Vishwa Bandhu’.
“…Together, we are very confident it will position us as ‘Vishwa Bandhu’, a country which is in a very turbulent world, in a very divided world, a world of conflicts and tensions. It would actually position us as a country which is trusted by many, whose prestige and influence, whose interests will be advanced…,” said the minister.
When asked how he sees India’s relationship with Pakistan and China shaping up in the next five years, he said, “In any country and especially in a democracy, it is a very big deal for a government to get elected three times in a row. So the world will definitely feel that today there is a lot of political stability in India…As far as Pakistan and China are concerned, the relations with those countries are different, and the problems there are also different. Our focus with regard to China will be on finding a solution for the border issues and with Pakistan, we would want to find a solution to the issue of years-old cross-border terrorism…”
On India’s UNSC seat Jaishankar said that he is fully confident that under PM Modi’s leadership, the foreign policy of Modi 3.0 will be very successful and other countries too realise that the influence of India has been steadily growing.
“It has different aspects and I am fully confident that under PM Modi’s leadership, the foreign policy of Modi 3.0 will be very successful…For us, the influence of India has been steadily growing, not just in terms of our own perception but also what the other countries think. They feel that India is truly their friend and they have seen that in times of crisis, if there is one country that stands with the Global South, it is India. They have seen that when we put forward the African Union membership during the presidency of G20, the world trusted us and our responsibilities are also increasing, so we also believe that under the leadership of PM Modi, India’s identity in the world will definitely increase…,” said Jaishankar.
Vaishnaw, who took charge as the Railway Minister and Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister, said that PM Modi has done a lot of reforms in railways in the last 10 years and the PM has kept railways in focus because railway is the common man’s mode of transport and a very strong backbone of the country.
“People have blessed PM Modi again to serve the country. Railways will have a very big role. In the last 10 years, PM Narendra Modi has done a lot of reforms in railways. Be it the electrification of railways, construction of new tracks, new types of trains, new services, or redevelopment of stations, these are the major achievements of PM Modi in the last 10 years. And the PM has kept railways in focus because railway is the common man’s mode of transport and a very strong backbone of our country’s economy, so there is a lot of focus on railways. Modi ji has an emotional connection with railways…I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Vaishnaw.
Apart from Jaishankar and Vaishnaw, other ministers who took charge included Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, Minister of Textiles Giriraj Singh, MoS of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi, MoS of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh.
“…Mission LIFE was started by PM Modi in the Glasgow COP as a very big action program for the environmental crisis in the world. Today, Mission LIFE is going on all over the world with the help of sustainable development and mindful consumption. PM Modi’s ‘Ek ped maa ke naam’ campaign should be done with utmost responsibility to keep our Earth green. Many steps have been taken by this ministry in the last 10 years under the leadership of PM Modi and we are moving ahead taking environment and development together…,” said Yadav.
PM Modi took the oath of office along with 72 ministers of the new coalition government on Sunday.
The Council of Ministers comprises 30 Cabinet Ministers, five Ministers of State with Independent Charge, and 36 Ministers of State. The 72-member council of ministers has seven women, including two with cabinet rank. This is four less than the outgoing council of ministers.
PM Modi will head a coalition government in his third term for the first time since he became Prime Minister in 2014 following a huge “Brand Modi” victory after 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule.
With inputs from agencies
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