Kiren Rijiju takes charge as new Justice & Law Minister after PM Modi's Cabinet reshuffle

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi  re-shuffled his cabinet on Wednesday, July 7 this is the first such rearrangement in the Council of Ministers since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019. 36 new people were included in PM Modi's new cabinet. Mansukh Mandaviya will replace Harsh Vardhan as the new Union health minister of the country. Jyotiraditya Scindia has been handed the Civil Aviation ministry, while Ashwini Vaishnav will handle Railways and IT ministry. Kiren Rijiju will take over from Ravi Shankar Prasad as the new Law minister of the country.

The Cabinet Reshuffle Orientation

A day after the massive expansion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers, the newly-appointed Ministers took charge of their responsibilities on Thursday, July 8 including Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, Law & Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju, and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav. All new Ministers are also slated to meet BJP President JP Nadda later in the day. Hours after 43 Ministers, including 15 Cabinet and 28 Ministers of State took oath at the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan on Wednesday, their Portfolios were announced. The recently-announced Ministry of Cooperation was given as an additional charge to the existing Home Minister Amit Shah. The announcement of the new Ministry was made on Tuesday, July 6 with the aim of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’ (prosperity through cooperatives). The Narendra Modi government has nearly doubled the number of women ministers since the first term. The strength has moved from six in the previous term to 11, the highest number of women ministers in the Union government since 2004. 

Kiren Rijiju Becomes the New Law Minister

Kiren Rijiju has been elevated to the cabinet minister rank and given the charge of the Ministry of Law and Justice after the Cabinet Reshuffle. He had been serving as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Minister of State for Minority Affairs and Ayush portfolios. Mr Rijiju represents the Arunachal Pradesh West constituency in Lok Sabha and holds a law degree from Delhi University. He succeeds Ravi Shankar Prasad as Law and Justice Minister. Mr Prasad has not got a cabinet portfolio in this reshuffle. Mr Rijiju was first elected to Lok Sabha after the 2004 general election. He lost the election in 2009 and was reelected in 2014 and 2019. Mr Rijiju is among six Union Ministers who have been promoted to the cabinet in today's mega reshuffle. The others are Hardeep Singh Puri, Parshottam Rupala, G Kishan Reddy, Mansukh Mandaviya and Anurag Thakur. Thirty-six new ministers have joined the Narendra Modi government in today's reshuffle. The cabinet now has 77 ministers.