Following the major Modi Cabinet Minister reshuffle earlier this week in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Union cabinet, a report published by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) poll rights group highlights 33 ministers (42%) in the new cabinet that have declared criminal cases against them.
During the major Cabinet reshuffle, as many as 15 new Cabinet Ministers and 28 Ministers of state were sworn in on Wednesday, taking the total strength of the council of ministers to 78.
Of all the ministers analysed, 33 (42 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves, said the Association for Democratic Reforms report citing their poll affidavits.
About 24 or 31 per cent Ministers have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, robbery etc.
According to the ADR report, of the analysed new Cabinet Ministers, Nitish Pramanik from the Cooch Behar constituency has a case against him related to murder (IPC Section-302). He has been allocated the Minster of State for Home Affairs. Pramanik(35) is the youngest minister in Modi’s new cabinet.
Four Ministers with attempt to murder cases (IPC Section-307) are John Barla, Pramanik, Pankaj Choudhary and V Muraleedharan. Furthermore, 90 percent i.e 70 of the new Ministers are crorepatis with total assets of over Rs 1 crore, reportedly.
Meanwhile, four ministers have been categorized as ‘high asset’ ministers. The minsters have assets worth more than 50 crores. These four ministers are- Jyotiraditya Scindia with over ₹379 crore assets, Piyush Goyal over ₹95 crore, Narayan Rane over ₹87 crore, and Rajeev Chandrasekhar with assets over ₹64 crore.
The cabinet ministers who have the lowest asset are- Pratima Bhoumik of Tripura with assets worth more than 6 lakh, John Barla of West Bengal has declared assets worth more than 14 lakh, Kailash Choudhary of Rajasthan has declared assets worth more than 24 lakh, Bishweswar Tudu of Odisha has declared assets worth more than 27 lakh, and V Muraleedharan of Maharashtra has declared assets worth more than 27 lakh.
The report also analysed the educational qualifications of the new cabinet, finding that a majority of them (21) are post-graduates. Nine ministers have a doctorate, while 17 each are graduates and professional graduates. Two ministers passed their Class VIII exams, three passed their Class X exam and seven others have passed their Class XII exam.
ADR further added that 56 of the 78 ministers are older than 51 years, while 18 are between the ages of 41-50.
Notably,The ADR is a poll rights group that frequently publishes reports ahead of elections, tallying affidavits to ascertain the criminal, financial, and other background details of politicians.