IF POLITICAL EXPERIENCE was the measure to evaluate the 30 cabinet ministers chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his third government, Ashwini Vaishnaw would be considered a newbie. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar beats him by two years in seniority as he was sworn in as cabinet minister in 2019. Vaishnaw, a former IAS officer with degrees from IIT Kanpur and Wharton Business School, was first inducted into the Union cabinet in July 2021. The two lateral entries into politics—Jaishankar and Vaishnaw— have again made it big.
Jaishankar continues to be part of the group of four powerful ministers who constitute the cabinet committee on security, along with Rajnath Singh as defence minister, Amit Shah as home minister and Nirmala Sitharaman as finance minister. However, it is Vaishnaw who has emerged as the rising star in the new government.
Modi rewarded Vaishnaw for the hard work and skill he showed in managing governance as well as elections. He served as co-in charge of Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP scored impressive wins in the assembly and the Lok Sabha polls. He also handled publicity and election management during the Lok Sabha polls and helped draft the BJP’s election manifesto. Rajnath Singh, who headed the manifesto panel, singled out Vaishnaw for his hard work in “collating massive information, studying suggestions and finally bringing them in an orderly form”.
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