Podcast: In cabinet reshuffle Smriti Irani exits I&B ministry

Moneycontrol News

Smriti, in Sanskrit, means ‘remembrance/that which is remembered’. For Ms Irani, the post of the Information & Broadcasting Minister, just like the Human Resources Development Minister earlier, remains but memory. Perhaps memories not remembered too fondly either, considering her exit from the coveted ministry comes in the wake of a swathe of controversies, just as her exit did during Smriti Irani version: HRD.

Even as dramatic developments are underway in Karnataka, with Siddaramaiah’s offer of unconditional support to the JD(S) to form the government and even head it, there are changes afoot at the Centre as well. The Modi government has undertaken a sudden cabinet reshuffle on May 14. What the changes are and what may have caused the reshuffle is the topic of our Story of the Day. My name is Rakesh, and this is Moneycontrol.

The Modi government undertook a sudden cabinet reshuffle yesterday, the 14th of May, with Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore rifling his way right to the top of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, ousting Smriti Irani in the process. Mr Rathore was a Minister of State in that department. This is the fifth reshuffle in this government. While in November 2014, July 2016 and September 2017, the Cabinet saw the induction of new ministers and a reshuffle of portfolios, in July 2017 and on May 14 there were only lateral shifts.

Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games medallist, Col. Rathore has now been elevated as full-time minister with independent charge after what is seen as a decent performance in this ministry as MoS. It has also been noted that he brought about positive changes in the sports ministry as minister with independent charge since last year.

Ms Irani currently only holds the ministry of textiles. But more on Smriti Irani later.

In another key change – albeit interim – Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Railways, will take charge of the Ministry of Finance during the time Mr Arun Jaitley is away on a leave of absence. Mr Jaitley underwent a successful kidney transplant at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences earlier this week. We wish him a swift recovery. Mr Goyal, a qualified lawyer and chartered accountant, was elevated to full cabinet rank in the reshuffle in September 2017 and given charge of the key railways ministry.

During the key period of the big banking clean-up that is underway, Goyal assumes the charge of the ministry of finance. On Monday, the finance ministry asked the board of Allahabad Bank to take away all powers of its CEO and MD Usha Ananthasubramanian after the Central Bureau of Investigation named her in the $2-billion Nirav Modi scam. Similar action has also been taken against two executive directors of the Punjab National Bank, One of Goyal’s tasks now is to ensure that the clean-up does not starve the recovering economy of vital bank credit, goes on to note The Economic Times, adding that another responsibility on Goyal’s shoulders now would be to keep the macro-economic parameters on an even keel as high crude prices raise worries on inflation, rupee, current account balance and government finances.

Additionally, the GST Council is in the middle of deliberating on a few key issues now. On the April 26th meeting, a simplified filling regime was agreed upon, and that needs to be rolled out now. Decisions will have to be taken on the issue of sugar cess and incentives for digital payments in the next meeting of the council. Until the return of Arun Jaitley it would also fall upon Piyush Goyal to manage the funding of the government’s key initiatives like minimum support prices (MSP) for crops and the ambitious healthcare scheme announced in the latest budget.

In the corporate affairs ministry, Goyal’s immediate task is to pilot an ordinance in the works which will make urgent changes to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. It was reported only last week that a reworked ordinance is expected to come before the cabinet soon. It would appear that Mr Goyal’s work seems cut out during his time as the interim finance minister.

As minister for power—the portfolio he held till taking charge as railways minister in the September 2017 cabinet reshuffle—Goyal presided over the rollout and implementation of the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana, a scheme to turn around debt-ridden state power distribution companies by allowing states to take over most of the outstanding debt of utilities. Goyal, 53, a Rajya Sabha member, rose to prominence in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government with his work in resolving the issues in the tightly regulated power and coal sectors.

In the last of the changes announced, BJP national vice president and current Minister of State for drinking water and sanitation, SS Ahluwalia has been moved to the ministry of electronics & information technology (MeitY). Sources familiar with the decision-making process said there were already two MoS and a full-time minister in Uma Bharati at the relatively small drinking water and sanitation ministry. The outspoken bureaucrat-turned-politician Alphons Kannanthanam has been relieved of the post of MoS of MeitY to allow him to fully focus on the tourism ministry ahead of Kumbh Mela 2019. Alphons holds independent charge of the ministry.

Whatever happened to Smriti Irani?

The reshuffle comes in the wake of Mr Arun Jaitley’s illness as well as, quite possibly, the growing list of controversies surrounding the less than year-long tenure of Ms Irani in the I&B ministry. For Smriti Irani, this marks the second downgrade after she was shunted out of the HRD ministry in 2016. Last year, she was brought back into the big league, as it were, when she was placed in the I&B ministry after Mr Venkaiah Naidu resigned the position and was later elected to the post of the Vice President of the country. In a tenure that lasted barely ten months, Smriti Irani’s ride has been anything but smooth. Here, on this edition of Story of the Day, we will take a closer look at the tenure of Smriti Irani, and the many thorny episodes along the way which may have led to her ouster. The drama here is nothing short of the sort Ms Irani saw during her heydays as the nation’s daughter-in-law on primetime television.

1. The national film awards episode

Let’s start with the latest issue in a litany of issues dogging the Irani tenure – the controversy about the National Film Awards. It was reported that Rashtrapati Bhavan was peeved with the way the ministry handled the situation, with President Ram Nath Kovind too expressing his displeasure.

What happened there? A quick recap: On May 3, the President was to hand over a select number of awards at the National Film Awards as had been conveyed to the I&B Ministry at least three weeks earlier. But the Ministry sent out invites to the awardees stating that the President would give away all the awards. The winners were informed only a day before the ceremony that most of them would get their awards from Smriti Irani which led to a protest with an estimated 55 of the 125 winners boycotting the ceremony.

It turned out that the Rashtrapati Bhavan had been in touch with I&B Ministry since March and had informed them that President Kovind would not spend more than an hour at the event. The President’s secretary Ashok Malik had said that Rashtrapati Bhavan had conveyed to every ministry about the new protocol that President Kovind had set for all official functions. “It was conveyed to I&B Ministry several weeks ago and the Ministry knew this all along. Rashtrapati Bhavan is surprised by the 11th hour questions that have been raised,” Mr. Malik had said on Thursday in a statement.

End result: confusion, disappointment for the awardees, embarrassment for the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and well, trouble for Irani.

2. The fake news episode

Earlier this year in April was perhaps Irani’s toughest hour – largely brought upon by herself. Under her stewardship, the I&B ministry issued guidelines against ‘fake news,’ which called for penal actions against journalists or media organisations found indulging in fake news. It had also said the accreditation of journalists could be permanently cancelled if s/he was found to be generating or propagating fake news. The Hindu reported that the notification, which did not define the phrase “fake news,” said complaints would be referred to the Press Council of India if they pertained to the print media and to the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) if they related to the electronic media. The regulatory agencies would have 15 days to dispose off a complaint. During the period of probe, the journalist’s accreditation would be suspended, the note said. The note further stated that on first violation, the accreditation would be suspended for six months, on the second violation for a year and on the third violation, it would be cancelled permanently.

Firstly, let us acknowledge here how hard it is to define what ‘fake news’ is. Secondly, more often than not, ‘fake news’ is generated through multiple sources and not just journalists. In fact, much of what one gets as WhatsApp forwards these days have never even made contact with a journalist. So the “solution” Smriti Irani was suggesting did not even define the problem well in the first place. That said, said “solution” seemed to compound the problem rather than simplify it.

The move was widely derided, with the Editors’ Guild of India saying, “By notifying that the I&B Ministry will initiate such proceedings, the government was arrogating for itself the role of policing the media. It would have opened the door for frivolous complaints to harass journalists and organisations to fall in line. Irani had said that the Centre was willing to engage with journalists' bodies or organisations to fight the "menace".

Opposition came in hard, and it came in fast. Congress leader Ahmed Patel questioned the government's intentions, and asked whether the move was aimed at preventing journalists from reporting news "uncomfortable to the establishment". He also asked who would determine if a reported news item is "fake" and expressed apprehension that rules might be misused to harass reporters. Sitaram Yechury compared the move to Emergency-era curbs on the media and free press. Many voices from various quarters decried the guidelines describing them as draconian and not in keeping with the spirit of the free press.

Writing for The Hindu, and wondering if Irani had become an embarrassment to the government, veteran journalist Karan Thapar was scathing in his remarks. “To many it suggested an attempt to muzzle the media in this crucial year before the 2019 elections. Finally, the fact that she made her decision known around the same time that Malaysia is proposing high-handed action against fake news — prior to its own election — only added to doubt and suspicion. As far as the journalist community is concerned, on this occasion she went one step too far. She has shown she doesn’t understand journalism, cannot be relied upon to protect press freedom and, therefore, does not deserve to be I&B Minister.”

The PMO was clearly not happy with the flak the guidelines were receiving, and promptly order the I&B ministry to withdraw them. The orders, it is believed, came directly from Prime Minister Modi. “The PM has directed that the press release regarding the fake news be withdrawn and the matter be addressed only by the Press Council of India,” a senior official in the PMO said. Mr. Modi was also of the view that the government should not interfere in the matter, the official added.

Further, reported The Times of India, “Even before the dust settled on the 'fake news' row, Irani announced her ministry's decision to constitute a committee to frame rules to regulate news portals and media websites, once again leading to concerns over attempts to gag free press.”

End result: well, not a shiny gem in the bejewelled pallu of the erstwhile Virani bahu.

3. The Prasar Bharti episode

This particularly embarrassing episode began late last year and continued well into the New Year, when the ministry, based on the recommendations of a committee headed by Sam Pitroda, sought to downsize Prasar Bharti. Among other suggestions to cut the excess at Prasar Bharti, the ministry recommended the sacking of all contractual staff, with immediate effect. This was seen as an attempt to undermine Prasar Bharti’s autonomy to hire its own staff. The ministry had asked for a serving IAS officer appointed as a full time member of the Corporation’s board, in the process turning a blind eye to the fact that such people should be employees of Prasar Bharti and selected by a committee chaired by the Vice President.