By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Speculations are rife that Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla might be ‘retired’ in the New Year.
News website Scroll.in reported on Tuesday that the senior most minister in the Narendra Modi-led NDA government might be dropped from the council of ministers.
Najma Heptulla (Courtesy: idiva.com)
According to Scroll: “Though the ostensible reason being given for Heptulla’s exit is that she reaches the retirement age of 75 next April, highly-placed officials said the move could be part of the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s strategy to ensure better floor management in the Rajya Sabha during future sessions of the Parliament.”
Apparently, she might have to suffer because of her junior colleague. According to the report, BJP is unhappy with Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s work in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry and wants to pack him off to the Minority Affairs Ministry. Naqvi was recently given the additional portfolio of minister of state in the minority affairs when Modi cabinet was expanded.
At the time of the formation of the government, Modi and RSS had agreed to have 75 as cut-off age for the cabinet, ostensibly to keep seniors such as Murli Manohar Joshi and Lal Krishna Advani away.
In the winter session, government had difficult times in the upper house of the Parliament as oppositions made ruckus over anti-conversion and hate speech and Naqvi might have to face the brunt for what the party sees as mismanagement of the floor of the house.