A concerted effort to oust Radha Mohan Singh and get Ashok Gulati in his place, in the yet to be formed new Cabinet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being orchestrated by the Lutyans Delhi. Media also seems to have become complicit in the conspiracy.
Narendra Modi will take oath as the Prime Minister on 30th May at 7pm at Rashtrapati Bhavan along with some of his members of the Union Council of Ministers. The names of probable are yet not known but baseless rumours are doing the rounds.
Despite Narendra Modi’s repeated statements against any speculation on possible names, some media houses are busy conjecturing names. One of such names doing the rounds in the media circles is that of Ashok Gulati who is said to replace Radha Mohan Singh as Union Agriculture Minister.
Gulati, a former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), was said to be instrumental in hiking the minimum support price of several food grains. Currently, he is Infosys chair professor for Agriculture at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
Extolling virtues of Gulati, media reports are unsparing in castigating Radha Mohan Singh and say that it was because of his lack of performance that BJP lost three state assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Gulati’s supporters have also flooded social media with posts advocating his name. One of such supporters wrote “PM Modi needs to give the agriculture portfolio to someone who is well respected for his understanding of farm-related matters and can also carry his voice in the Cabinet.”
On the other hand, Radha Mohan is regarded as amiable and friendly who had been able to capture the hearts of cooperative leaders due to his easy style and grounded approach. Leaders cutting across party lines from Sahakar Bharati to non-RSS bodies are favorably disposed towards him.
“It takes time to understand co-operatives and it would be a jolt to the movement if he is not given this portfolio”, said a few cooperators to Indian Cooperative, who are privy to the concerted campaign to oust him being currently mounted by vested interests.
But they take solace from the fact that nobody knows Modi’s mind and all these names are mere figments of imagination. They quoted several past experiences such as the choice of President or demonetization or surgical strike to prove their point. Modi is inscrutable and media is just clueless, they said.