In a brilliant stroke by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to empower women and bring more of them to the forefront of Indian administration, former commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been named the new defence minister, the country's first full-time female minister to hold the post.
Sitharaman is one of the four ministers to be elevated to the cabinet rank. In a major cabinet reshuffle which is deemed as Modi's yet another strategy to clinch second term in the upcoming 2019 elections, the PM made several noteworthy changes, the biggest of them being Nirmala's appointment. “Somebody who has come from a small town, grown into the party with all the support of the leadership, and if given responsibility, it just makes you feel sometimes that cosmic grace is there. Otherwise it is impossible,” Nirmala told reporters after taking oath.
She takes over charge of the major department from Arun Jaitley who also holds the Finance Ministry. Party sources said as the minister of state for commerce, Nirmala is seen to have gained in confidence in handling the ministry and has done well in multilateral negotiations. She also found herself in the limelight as party spokesperson back when BJP was in the Opposition.
Already taking over her responsibilities, the Defence Minister who is due to assume office on September 6, was reportedly briefed by senior military and defence ministry officials at her Safdarjung Road residence. Officials said, “IAF chief Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa met the new minister for around half-an-hour while other senior officials of the defence ministry were briefing throughout the day.” She also met with senior defence ministry officials, including the Secretary, soon after taking oath as a Cabinet minister.
She said Make in India, one of PM Modi's key initiatives, in the defence sector would be one of her priorities. When asked how she plans to tackle issues faced by her ministry, Nirmala said she would discuss these issues in detail after assuming charge but would take decisions in consultation with all stakeholders under the guidance of the PM. She will face challenges of modernising the armed forces, that deal with issues of obsolescence in weapons and equipment.
Leftist JNU alumna becomes BJP's shining star
For those who know the new Defence Minister, the ruling national party's particular move may have come as a surprise. Nirmala Sitharaman, a non-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh politician comes from the controversial Jawaharlal Nehru University, that is time and again accused of showing leftist tendencies.
From a humble background, her life began in a small town in Tamil Nadu which remains almost untouched by the BJP. Her father, a Tamil Iyengar, worked in the Railways. Nirmala did her Bachelor’s in Economics at the Seethalakshmi Ramaswami college, and later got into the economics programme at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She did her masters and MPhil on Indo-Europe trade in JNU, where she also was a member of the Free Thinkers- a forum that discussed politics of both, the right and the left.
Married into a family with staunch Congress followers, Nirmala was appointed as an apolitical member of the National Commission for Women during the first National Democratic Alliance government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. She was later removed after the Congress came to power and moved back to set up a policy think tank in Hyderabad along with a school for the underprivileged. Her work with the school brought her into contact with Sushma Swaraj, current Minister of External Affairs, then the first woman to become national spokesperson for the BJP in the 1990s.
Nirmala soon got involved with the RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch, and in 2006, at the behest of Swaraj and other BJP leaders, joined the party. Four years later, she became the second woman to be a national spokesperson for the party, and gradually gained huge popularity internally. She became a shoo-in for a ministerial post in 2014, when Modi roared into power, despite her not being a Member of Parliament.
Her tenure in the Commerce ministry has not been very successful as she had to deal with issues inherited over the years. Now, as the leader of defence of the nation, she is due to face several challenges. With elections due in 2019, Nirmala barely has a year and a half to make an impression in ministry where policies are seldom placed at the right time. There are several ongoing important defence deals and she will have to rescue the military segment of the Make in India policy. She also has to face the One Rank One Pension agitation that is layered in several political activities from veterans and forces. All these issues come secondary to the fact that her policy direction will directly come from the Prime Minister's Office and the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
London hails India's new Defence Minister
Modi's unprecedented move to give the defence ministry to Nirmala found praise across seas in the UK as several leaders and businessmen commended her appointment. Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable, who was business secretary in the former David Cameron government, hailed Nirmala's new role, recalling her straight-talking on India-UK ties in the past. “Nirmala is a highly impressive minister with whom I had very productive meetings. I am delighted she has progressed to such a crucial and sensitive post in the (Indian) cabinet.”
Industrialist Swraj Paul said, “It is a great appointment. She is a very efficient and capable person. Everyone knows my admiration for the first woman who held the defence portfolio: Indira Gandhi. Nirmala has a very big act to follow; I wish her the best.”
The UK government has first-hand experience working with the minister. She had held talks in November 2016, when Prime Minister Theresa May travelled to India seeking to enhance trade ties. Nirmala's remarks as then commerce minister were considered of utmost importance by London. She had said that British visa restrictions from Indians “sound like non-tariff barriers in the services sector”, and noted that India was “not being treated as old friends any longer.”
