BackIndia gets a new home minister in BJP president Amit Shah
Amit Shah has been the mind behind every strategy of the BJP – big or smallShah became the BJP president after the first National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was formed
PremiumNew Delhi: In a major move, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has taken over as Union Home Minister, the second most important charge and a portfolio earlier held by Rajnath Singh in the National Democratic Alliance’s first term in office. The appointment comes a day after Shah took the oath of office along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
The portfolio is one of the most crucial because not only is the home minister the second in command in the country, but also because the ministry is responsible for all matters pertaining to national security.
Shah’s rise to the highest echelons of the government has been nothing short of remarkable. While Modi has become the face of a party that has been catapulted to an electoral victory with a thumping majority, Shah has been the mind behind the party’s strategies – big or small.
Having worked with Modi in Gujarat as the state’s home minister, Shah was handpicked by Modi and sent to Uttar Pradesh when Modi became the prime ministerial candidate of BJP in 2013.
After the first National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was formed, Shah became the BJP president and has now has been inducted into the cabinet. For Shah the task ahead is cut out.
While PM Modi as well as the BJP have been stressing scrapping of Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution related Jammu and Kashmir, the task of fulfilling the promise, which was the party’s poll plank in the state, now rests on Shah.
But with militancy, radicalization and recruitment continuing unabated in the Kashmir Valley, Shah has a long road ahead of him.
With 2018 witness to at least 260 terrorists being gunned down in the valley, experts have time and again reiterated that the new government needed to see the situation in Kashmir as more than a law and order problem.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has treated the issue as a law and order or a terrorism problem. There has been no headway in having a dialogue with the people. India cannot steam-roll the situation there because there will be huge repercussions from Pakistan," said Lt. Gen (retd) H.S. Panag, a defence expert, adding that, “Pakistan will not change its strategy. So the new government itself has to step up and find a political solution. Our government needs to change its outlook because we (India and Pakistan) can’t always be at a state of readiness to attack the other."
While the ministry grapples with the biggest terror attack in Kashmir in the last three decades, following the Pulwama blast in February, all eyes will now be on Shah to see how his ministry handles one of India’s oldest and largest crises in the state of Kashmir.
Shah’s also has his work in India’s red corridor cut out for him.
The home ministry under the previous Modi-led government had rolled out several infrastructure as well as security initiatives in Naxal corridor, especially in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, such as the SAMADHAN programme, Shah will be looking at continuing those initiatives.
Also read: PM Modi allocates portfolios. Full list of new ministers
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