As many as 12 ministers from PM Modi’s team have resigned from their posts ahead of Union cabinet reshuffle. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Minister of Law and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad are among the most significant casualties of the cabinet rejig. Deputy health minister Ashwini Chaube and Rajya Sabha member Prakash Javadekar have also quit While Harsh Vardhan has been in the eye of storm for his handling of covid pandemic, Prasad has been in a bitter feud with social media company Twitter for the past few weeks over the new IT rules.
Here is the full list of ministers who resigned from the union cabinet.
- Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare
- Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Information Technology
- Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister of Education
- Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment and Forest
- Santosh Gangwar, Labour Minister
- Sadananda Gowda, Minister of Chemical and Fertilser
- Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change
- Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Education, Communications, Electronics & IT
- Raosaheb Patil Danve, Minister of State Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
- Rattan Lal Kataria, Minister of State for Jal Shakti and Social Justice & Empowerment
- Pratap Sarangi, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries & MSME
- Debasree Chaudhuri, Union Minister Of State For Ministry of Women and Child Development
- Thawarchand Gehlot, Union Minister, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
Their resignation comes as Modi government faces severe criticism of its handling of the second wave of Covid in April-May, which put significant stress on India’s health infrastructure and left tens of thousands desperate for oxygen, hospital beds and vaccine.
The health minister, who was also elected in WHO’s executive board, was at loggerheads with states and state ministers who criticised the government’s vaccine policy
Following the resignation of Health minister, the Congress trained its gun at the union government saying resignations are a candid submission of the government”s “monumental failure” in managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying if things go right, the credit will go to him and if they do not, it will fall on the minister concerned.
Another senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Vardhan has been made a scapegoat for the failures at the highest level.
“The resignations of the Union Health Minister and the MoS Health is a candid confession that the Modi government has utterly failed in managing the pandemic,” Chidambaram wrote on Twitter.
