By IANS,
New Delhi : After Sunday’s reshuffle, India’s all-powerful cabinet committee on security, comprising five key ministers, will have a new look, with S.M. Krishna having quit and Salman Khurshid taking his place as external affairs minister.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde as the other members.
Two key members have left in the last three months — Pranab Mukherjee, who quit in July this year as finance minister to be elevated as the president of India, and Krishna, who has been drafted for Congress party work.
It has also had two new entrants in Sushilkumar Shinde in July this year after Chidambaram was shifted to finance and Khurshid, who has been elevated from law to external affairs Sunday.
Between 2004 and 2009 under the UPA-I government, the CCS witnessed only three changes, when K. Natwar Singh resigned from the government in early 2006, when Antony came in as the defence minister that year, and later when then home minister Shivraj Patil quit in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.