Cabinet Reshuffle

Cabinet Reshuffle

The minor Cabinet reshuffle ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament was discussed in the Sangh Parivar weeklies, with both carrying editorials on it while Organiser also carried a full page news report.

Given that P. Chidambaram has come in for criticism from the Sangh Parivar for investigating right-wing Hindu terrorism, his move away from the home ministry appears to have been welcomed. The editorials — "Celebrating failures" in Organiser and "Congress' caste politics" in Panchjanya — were critical of Sushilkumar Shinde's elevation from power minister to home minister, with Chidambaram's appointment as finance minister questioned on the grounds of his alleged abuse of position.

"He [Shinde] was shifted out of [the] power ministry, in the peak of [the] crisis to hold charge of an even more important portfolio — the internal security of the nation," the editorial in Organiser said, rejecting Shinde's claim that he was a good power minister. On Chidambaram, the editorial only says that he remains "suspect" for his role in 2G spectrum case.

Panchjanya's editorial alleges that the government rewarded Shinde for his caste credentials and not for his competence, using the recent power grid failure to highlight his perceived incompetence as power minister.

"Since under Manmohan Singh nobody is accountable for anything that is happening in the country, the culprits, bad managers and underachievers go unpunished," writes Organiser.

Recruiting youth

The Sangh Parivar seems to have started to try to dispel the notion of not being able to attract young volunteers to its fold, or so a full-page special interview of RSS general secretary Bhaiyaji Joshi in Organiser suggests. The interview headline asserts his demand to "detect, delete and dep-ort all Bangladeshi infiltrators" against the backdrop of the recent violence in Assam. The interview highlights the purported efforts and achievements of the RSS in attracting young people and IT professionals to its training camps.

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