The TLDR: There’s nothing the media loves more than the political intrigue of a big cabinet reshuffle—to decode whose fortunes have soared or waned, what weighty signals are being sent, and which strategies are at play. If you don’t care about any of that, we suggest you skip ahead to our tribute to Dilip Kumar:)

Here’s what’s new...

The basic deets:

• This is a mega-cabinet with 78 ministers—almost at the statutory limit of 81. 
• And it’s almost totally brand new with 36 new faces. While 12 ministers were shown the door, six others were stripped of their existing posts—which is why it is being described as the largest-scale purge in recent times.
• The average age of the cabinet has dropped from 61 to 58. Nisith Pramanik—who is now a Minister of State—is the youngest at 35.
• The PM added seven women—doubling their number to 11, which is the highest it has ever been since 2004.
• And the cabinet has more expertise and education: 13 lawyers, six doctors, five engineers, seven civil servants, seven PhDs and three MBAs along with 68 Ministers with graduate degrees.

Key changes:

One: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has been sacked—likely for announcing that it was the “endgame” for the pandemic right before the second wave hit. And no number of nasty letters to Manmohan Singh or photo-ops with Baba Ramdev (and his snake oil Coronil) mattered—not when the government needed to find a scapegoat for its handling of the pandemic. In any case, he had been sidelined long before his departure, reduced to playing attack dog, berating various state governments and Opposition leaders on Twitter. Going viral on Twitter, a caption contest for this photo lol!

FYI: His replacement is Mansukh Mandaviya—previously the minister of ports, shipping and waterways. No, unlike Vardhan he is not a doctor, but started his career at ABVP, the student wing of the RSS, and is from Gujarat—which are both sound qualifications within the BJP.

Two: To be fair, Vardhan had plenty of company. Other heavyweights who were unceremoniously stripped of their weighty portfolios include Ravi Shankar Prasad (Law, Information Technology) and Prakash Javadekar, (Information & Broadcasting, Environment). According to The Telegraph:

“It’s being speculated that they have been punished for failing to protect the government’s image, particularly before the international media where it has been battered over its handling of Covid and its record on human rights and democracy.”

FYI: Modi’s pick for the IT ministry is Ashwini Vaishnaw—who is a former IAS officer and an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur and Wharton Business School. And it will be interesting to see if he takes a different approach with the likes of Twitter—as opposed to Prasad’s favoured strategy of delivering threats on Koo. The new Information & Broadcasting minister is none other than Anurag Thakur. He has been elevated from Minister of State for Finance. He has been rewarded for his relative youth, performance and close relationship with both Modi and Amit Shah—also, perhaps his communication skills?

Three: All roads—and big decisions—lead as always back to elections, and each key voting bloc got its share,  as The Hindu notes:

“As per the numbers, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre now has 27 Other Backward Class (OBC) Ministers, 12 Ministers belonging to the Scheduled Castes, eight Ministers belonging to the Scheduled Tribes, five Ministers from minority religious communities, and 11 women Ministers, who represent some of the more marginalised regional areas of the country as well.”

Looming closest are the Uttar Pradesh elections. Hence, the state now has 14 ministers in the cabinet—including the seven new entries of three OBC Ministers, three Scheduled Caste and one Brahmin minister. Maharashtra also got a lot of love for being the one that got away. The inclusion of the powerful Maratha leader and former chief minister Narayan Rane points to more battles with the Shiv Sena-led government in the future.

Four: The PM also doled out laddus to the courageous men who left their party to join the greater BJP cause—especially in key states. Laddu #1—Civil Aviation—went to Jyotiraditya Scindia who helped bring down the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. Laddu #2—Food and Consumer Affairs—went to Pasupati Paras who single-handedly split open the Lok Janshakti Party in Bihar—and destroyed the career of Nitish Kumar’s nemesis Chirag Paswan (explained here).

The bottomline: Everyone knows that all key decisions are made by the Prime Minister’s Office—and there has been no reshuffle on that front. Simply changing faces will not change outcomes.

Reading list

The Telegraph, Mint and The Hindu offer varying analyses of the political calculations behind the reshuffle. Indian Express focuses on the Health and IT ministries. You can see the full list of appointees here.

The TLDR: His passing deservedly received tons of coverage—and an excuse to resurface lovely throwback photos. We’ve picked out the best of the lot—many of which were written before he died.

A list of good reads

• BBC News’ obituary neatly lays out all the details of his life and career.
• Bharathi Pradhan’s tribute to the great man in The Telegraph is full of juicy anecdotes and humorous insights.
• Anwar Abbas’ personal essay in Scroll charting his memories of Yusuf Bhai is a delightful read—especially of a late-night phone call that caused hilarious confusion.
• The Hindu looks at the other Dilip Kumar—the man who supported many causes and remained a staunch Congress-wala until the very end.
• Trisha Gupta in Caravan magazine reviewed the memoirs of Kumar and Naseerudin Shah—and the contrast offers key insights into the man’s personality and style.
• Deepak Mahan in The Hindu shares what he learned from his access to the vast memorabilia of Saira Banu’s personal collection of photographs and videos. This is ‘Sahab’ as seen through the adoring eyes of his wife.
• Times of India did a big interview with Saira Banu—who speaks here with great enthusiasm and at length about their relationship.
• Of course, Kumar’s other great love affair was with Madhubala. And Indian Express sums up what he has to say about the one that never worked out.
• Also watch: Dilip Kumar explaining why he changed his name from Yusuf Khan.

A list of good photos

For starters: Photo galleries can be tedious. We recommend instead this video montage of rare pictures of the man—but be sure to mute the annoying background music.

Dilip-Sahib was always dapper, even in this all-tweed ensemble—holding a ??

And yes, he loved playing almost every sport, including cricket.

There are plenty of photos of Kumar with his other great contemporary, Dev Anand. This one is our favourite.

Speaking of Dev Anand, here’s a rare treasure of the great trio—Dev, Raj and Dilip—with Pandit Nehru.

A more recent star gathering: Kumar with Amitabh Bachchan and SRK.

This is Kumar, his sister Sayeeda and an amusingly grumpy Vyjayanthimala.

There are lots of photos of Kumar and Saira Banu. But we love this recent spontaneous shot that sums up a lifetime of intimacy. Also check out this gallery of the two lovebirds over the years here.