Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla, the senior-most member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s council of ministers, is likely to be dropped from the cabinet early next year, according to officials.
Though the ostensible reason being given for Heptulla’s exit is that she reaches the retirement age of 75 next April, highly-placed officials said the move could be part of the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s strategy to ensure better floor management in the Rajya Sabha during future sessions of Parliament.
The party is evidently unhappy with Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s work in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry and wants to pack him off to the Minority Affairs Ministry.
Reshuffle of responsibilities
When the government was formed, 75 was set as the cutoff age for ministers set by Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. That allowed them to deny senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi a berth in Modi’s Council of Ministers in May.
It is not, however, clear whether Heptulla’s is a simple case of reaching the age limit.
Officials say it could be a way to take away Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi away from the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry that he now occupies and restrict him to the Ministry of Minority Affairs by giving him a cabinet rank or the position of minister with independent charge.
At present, Naqvi is a Minister of State in both Parliamentary Affairs and Minority Affairs ministries. Being a member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, it was he who was most responsible – much more than Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu – for ensuring the smooth functioning of the Upper House in the ongoing winter session of Parliament. He faltered terribly.
Unhappy leadership
“In the winter session, Naqvi’s talent for producing the wrong sort of surprises was on full display,” a senior BJP leader told Scroll.in. “Though the deadlock in the Rajya Sabha had a great deal to do with developments outside Parliament, Naqvi’s non-conciliatory attitude towards the opposition was also seen as a strong factor behind the poor floor management by the government.”
According to officials, Naqvi’s “unpleasant behaviour” has become an irritant in the government’s ties with the opposition parties. In fact, in the meeting of the BJP parliamentary party on December 16, Modi had expressed “his unhappiness with over the poor floor management in the Rajya Sabha”.
“Naqvi loses his cool at the slightest provocation,” the BJP leader said. “This is unbecoming of a minister who has been given the responsibility of persuading opposition parties to help in the House’s proper functioning. Several opposition leaders have told me about Naqviji’s offensive behaviour.”
Caught in a gridlock
The saffron party has a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, but it needs support from the opposition in the Rajya Sabha to carrying out its legislative agenda. The winter session, which is slated to end on Tuesday, was seen as a complete washout because the government could not move a bit in the Upper House, where the BJP has just 58 MPs out of the total strength of 242.
The deadlock in the Rajya Sabha proved so dear to the government that it failed miserably on almost all of its crucial legislations, including the bill to increase the foreign investment ceiling in the insurance sector from existing 26% to 49%.
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Though the ostensible reason being given for Heptulla’s exit is that she reaches the retirement age of 75 next April, highly-placed officials said the move could be part of the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s strategy to ensure better floor management in the Rajya Sabha during future sessions of Parliament.
The party is evidently unhappy with Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s work in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry and wants to pack him off to the Minority Affairs Ministry.
Reshuffle of responsibilities
When the government was formed, 75 was set as the cutoff age for ministers set by Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. That allowed them to deny senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi a berth in Modi’s Council of Ministers in May.
It is not, however, clear whether Heptulla’s is a simple case of reaching the age limit.
Officials say it could be a way to take away Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi away from the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry that he now occupies and restrict him to the Ministry of Minority Affairs by giving him a cabinet rank or the position of minister with independent charge.
At present, Naqvi is a Minister of State in both Parliamentary Affairs and Minority Affairs ministries. Being a member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, it was he who was most responsible – much more than Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu – for ensuring the smooth functioning of the Upper House in the ongoing winter session of Parliament. He faltered terribly.
Unhappy leadership
“In the winter session, Naqvi’s talent for producing the wrong sort of surprises was on full display,” a senior BJP leader told Scroll.in. “Though the deadlock in the Rajya Sabha had a great deal to do with developments outside Parliament, Naqvi’s non-conciliatory attitude towards the opposition was also seen as a strong factor behind the poor floor management by the government.”
According to officials, Naqvi’s “unpleasant behaviour” has become an irritant in the government’s ties with the opposition parties. In fact, in the meeting of the BJP parliamentary party on December 16, Modi had expressed “his unhappiness with over the poor floor management in the Rajya Sabha”.
“Naqvi loses his cool at the slightest provocation,” the BJP leader said. “This is unbecoming of a minister who has been given the responsibility of persuading opposition parties to help in the House’s proper functioning. Several opposition leaders have told me about Naqviji’s offensive behaviour.”
Caught in a gridlock
The saffron party has a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, but it needs support from the opposition in the Rajya Sabha to carrying out its legislative agenda. The winter session, which is slated to end on Tuesday, was seen as a complete washout because the government could not move a bit in the Upper House, where the BJP has just 58 MPs out of the total strength of 242.
The deadlock in the Rajya Sabha proved so dear to the government that it failed miserably on almost all of its crucial legislations, including the bill to increase the foreign investment ceiling in the insurance sector from existing 26% to 49%.