Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined BJP from Congress, took charge of the Civil Aviation Ministry on Friday. Scindia, a prominent leader of Madhya Pradesh, took oath as a cabinet minister on Wednesday. He joined BJP in March 2020 and is currently a Rajya Sabha member. At the same time, General VK Singh took charge as the Minister of State for Civil Aviation.
Scindia has taken charge of the ministry at a time when the civil aviation sector is facing a difficult situation due to the coronavirus pandemic. The demand in this sector has been hit hard and due to this the airlines are facing financial crisis. The government is also taking forward the process of disinvestment of national airline Air India. Scindia has served as the Minister of State for Communications, Commerce and Industry and Power during the Congress-led UPA government.
Jyotiraditya’s father late Madhavrao Scindia was also included in the cabinet of PV Narasimha Rao. From 1991 to 1993, he held the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism. The late Madhavrao had faced the challenges of liberalization during his tenure, so now Jyotiraditya also faces a big problem like Kovid. The aviation sector has been greatly affected during the pandemic.
The Modi cabinet has been expanded on Wednesday. In this 43 ministers have been sworn in. After this, there have been 77 ministers in the Modi cabinet. 36 new faces have been given place while 7 ministers have been promoted and given cabinet rank. Along with this, many big leaders including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar and Harsh Vardhan had resigned as ministers before the cabinet expansion. In the new cabinet, preference has been given to states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, where assembly elections are going to be held next year. Along with this, special preference has been given to youth, professionals and experienced people in the cabinet.