The biggest surprise in Tuesday’s reshuffle of portfolios was the shifting of Smriti Irani from the HRD Ministry. The RSS agenda of saffronising education and Prime Minister Modi’s goal of commercialising it required an unquestioning, non-resistant minister and Smriti Irani was eminently qualified for the job. But her penchant for media attention and controversies, including the latest on being called “dear”, came in the way.

Her school dropout status caused little problem. Prakash Javadekar is a smooth talker, avoids needless spats and can justify anything, no matter how damaging. He has ably achieved Modi’s goal of granting quick clearances to industry and built a reputation for efficiency by not letting environmental concerns come in the way of “vikas”. Textiles has a huge potential for creating jobs and capturing markets vacated by China but the harm Smriti can do to this sector is currently underestimated.

In Jayant Sinha, Finance Minister Jaitley had a good number two. His being grounded in civil aviation appears to be due to the uncontrolled anti-Modi fulminations of his father. Had performance alone guided the Cabinet and portfolio choices, Mahesh Sharma, Niranjan Jyoti, Sanjeev Baliyan and Giriraj Singh would not have survived the scrutiny. By leaving them untouched, Modi has sent a message that making crass, communal talk does not earn anyone poor marks in the performance appraisal. The only saving grace is that a minister from Rajasthan facing rape and murder charges has been dropped. Doomed are the ministries handed over to the electorally useful MPs whose only claim to fame is that they were born in a particular caste. Also, by retaining ministers above 75 and having a jumbo-size ministry, Modi has violated his own rules. Gen VK Singh will have to share Foreign Ministry space with MJ Akbar, even though their senior minister herself is terribly short of work since it is Modi who decides foreign policy. This government is essentially run by the PMO through a select group of trusted officials, drawn mostly from Gujarat. Such a large ministerial army also belies Modi’s assertion of “minimum government, maximum governance”. That too has turned out to be yet another jumla.