Delhi Confidential: The Introduction

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the virtual interactions usually first listens to the concerns of the chief ministers and then immediately begins addressing them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

WHILE DISCUSSING with the states on the pandemic situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the virtual interactions usually first listens to the concerns of the chief ministers and then immediately begins addressing them. However, on Tuesday, before addressing the chief ministers of Northeastern states, the Prime Minister took a pause, and introduced new Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and his new team, since this was the first such meeting with the states after formation of the new Cabinet.

Wide Audience

To ENSURE that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with Olympic-bound athletes on Tuesday is watched by a large number of people, the Sports Ministry last week wrote to the Education Ministry, requesting it to give wide publicity to the event and instruct schools to do the same. On Monday, the Education Ministry passed on the instructions to all state governments and autonomous institutions such as CBSE, KVS, NVS and NCERT so that students can register and tune in to the event.

The Vacancy

AFTER CABINET expansion, the next buzz in the BJP corridors is about vacancies created by the recent appointments. With Thaawarchand Gehlot becoming a Governor, many names are doing the rounds for the post of the leader of the house in Rajya Sabha. The party is expected to make the announcement soon as the monsoon session of Parliament is scheduled to begin on July 19. With both Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal being members of the key Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, either of them could be picked up, party sources said. The other name doing the rounds is that of Dharmendra Pradhan. Party sources also said that Sitharaman is part of all crucial Cabinet committees, which hints that she could also be elevated to be a member of the BJP Parliamentary Board, the party’s apex decision making body.