Centre revamps 8 Cabinet Committees; Amit Shah common factor, Rajnath Singh only in two

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In a major development, the Narendra Modi led Central government has reconstituted eight Cabinet Committees with Amit Shah featuring in all the panels.

These include Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, Cabinet Committee on Accommodation, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Security, Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth and Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development.

Home Minister Amit Shah has featured in all the eight committees while Prime Minister Narendra Modi in six of the panel.

However, in a significant and rather surprising step, BJP’s senior-most leader and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been included in just two committees – Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs and Security.

He is notably missing from the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is in seven panels and Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal in five.

The Cabinet Appointments Committee has only PM Modi and Amit Shah.

Following are the Cabinet Committees and its members:

1. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet

Narendra Modi
Amit Shah

2. Cabinet Committee on Accommodation

Amit Shah
Nitin Jairam Gadkari
Nirmala Sitharaman
Piyush Goyal

3. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs

Narendra Modi
Rajnath Singh
Amit Shah
Nitin Jairam Gadkari
DV Sadananda Gowda
Nirmala Sitharaman
Narendra Singh Tomar
Ravi Shankar Prasad
Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
Piyush Goyal
Dharmendra Pradhan

4. Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs

Amit Shah
Nirmala Sitharaman
Ramvilas Paswan
Narendra Singh Tomar
Ravi Shankar Prasad
Thawar Chand Gehlot
Prakash Javadekar
Prahlad Joshi

5. Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs

Narendra Modi
Amit Shah
Nitin Jairam Gadkari
Nirmala Sitharaman
Ramvilas Paswan
Narendra Singh Tomar
Ravi Shankar Prasad
Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Dr Harsh Vardhan
Piyush Goyal
Arvind Ganpat Sawant
Prahlad Joshi

6. Cabinet Committee on Security

Narendra Modi
Rajnath Singh
Amit Shah
Nirmala Sitharaman
Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar

7. Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth

Narendra Modi
Amit Shah
Nitin Jairam Gadkari
Nirmala Sitharaman
Piyush Goyal

8. Cabinet Committee on Employment & Skill Development

Narendra Modi
Amit Shah
Nirmala Sitharaman
Narendra Singh Tomar
Piyush Goyal
Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’
Dharmendra Pradhan
Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey
Santosh Kumar Gangwar
Hardeep Singh Puri

Hit hard by the 5-year low GDP growth and a 45-year high unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent, the newly formed Modi government swung into action and on Wednesday, as it formed two new cabinet committees to check the declining trend in growth and employment and spur demand as well as consumption.