The Cabinet of PM Narenda Modi.

The Cabinet of PM Narenda Modi.

On 20th May in my blog " The General Election of India " I wrote that Arun Jaitley might be ousted and that Amit Shah could be Deputy Prime Minister cum BJP President / Deputy Prime Minister cum Home Minister ".

Well Jaitley is out. Seeing the writing on the wall, he asked not to be included in the new team. Nirmala Sitharaman who replaced Jaitley as Defence Minister after Doklam, has now replaced Jaitley as Finance Minister who leaves behind a legacy of highest unemployment figure in 45 years and much slower growth rate.

And Amit Shah has become all I said. His title is not Deputy Prime Minister but he is now the number 2 in the Indian government. He and Modi chose the Ministers. I guess he is superstitious about the Deputy Prime Minister title considering the fate of Shri Advaniji. But Amit Shah is the undisputed no: 2 + Home Minister and as of now he still is the BJP Party President.

I feel sorry for Madam Sushma Swaraj. I felt she would go but I could not bring myself to write so. She seems to be a great person and I liked her for the way she conducted herself with our Royals during her visit to Bhutan. But it was Jaishankar the foreign Secretary whose tenure was extended and trusted by Modi to handle external crisis especially the Doklam fiasco even whilst Shushma was the Minister. So the political signal was very clear.

The new External.Minister Jaishankar is praised by all. He is an experienced diplomat and a seasoned trouble shooter. But he did cause the biggest Indian blunder with Nepal. I kind of recall that it was Jaishankar who went to give Nepal the ultimatum about Nepal's new constitution followed up with Nepal blockade by India which pushed Nepal towards China. Maybe, he was only executing the bidding of the PM Modi and Ajit Doval at that time. He visited Bhutan during the height of Doklam crisis. So our respected Kings would know how feriously impactful the new External.Affairs Minister of India can be.

Ajit Doval the National Security Adviser who advocated the anti-Nepal and anti-Bhutan policies i.e. economic blokade of Nepal and Indian military trangession on Bhutan side of Doklam on false pretext of protecting Bhutan, may be on his way out. His policies backfired badly. He angered China, pushed away Nepal and shocked Bhutan numb.  And now in any case with Jaishankar as External Minister and Amit Shah in Home Ministry, Ajit Doval is hemmed in to suffocation by two figures who enjoy much more personal rapport and trust with PM Modi. I just hope that Bhutan has a leader who can fare better during this 2nd Modi term.