Upper castes get big chunk of ministerial berths

-The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to accommodate representatives of most castes in his Council of Ministers but upper castes got a dominant presence, bagging 32 of the 58 berths. Ministers from Other Backward Classes, a crucial political constituency, numbered 13.

Nine Brahmin leaders have found place in the Union cabinet, including Nitin Gadkari. Three Thakur leaders also made it, including Rajnath Singh, Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Thakur and Morena MP Narendra Singh Tomar. Dharmendra Pradhan remains a prominent OBC face in the cabinet, besides Modi himself.

Of the 58 MPs sworn in as ministers on Thursday, six belonged to the Scheduled Castes and four to the Scheduled Tribes, mostly from Odisha and Jharkhand. Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal and BJP’s Hardeep Puri were the two Sikhs while Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was the lone Muslim to take oath.

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