Big Guns Out: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Environment Minister Prakash Javedkar resign as Modi Cabinet expands

As 43 new ministers get inducted into Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, some big names handed in their resignation on July 7. The biggest among them being Union minister for health and family welfare Harsh Vardhan and Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal.

Ramesh Pokhriyal's resignation comes a day after he announced the JEE Mains 2021 dates for the third and fourth sessions. Pokhriyal had joined the Cabinet in 2019.

Another big name that was a surprise was IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's resignation. Very recently, the Minister's Twitter account was blocked for an hour on June 25. The access was briefly revoked on ground of the alleged violation of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of the USA, Prasad said. The action comes amid the row between the Centre and Twitter over India's new social media rules.

Along with Ravi Shankar Prasad, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar as well put down his resignation. BJP MP Babul Supriyo as well announced his resignation as junior minister in the Environment Ministry.

In a post on Facebook, the former Minister of State said he is "extremely happy" that he left the stint "without a spot of corruption on me". Mr Supriyo congratulated some leaders from Bengal who are going to be part of the refreshed Union cabinet, and added - "I am surely sad for myself."

The President of India has accepted the resignation of 12 members of the Council of Ministers including IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank and others, read a statement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The others to resign ahead of the oath-taking are Thawarchand Gehlot, D. V. Sadananda Gowda, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Babul Supriyo, Sanjay Dhotre, Rattan Kataria, Rattan Lal Kataria, Partap Chandra Sarangi and Debasree Chaudhuri.

This is the first Cabinet reshuffle since the NDA government came into power in 2019 for a second term. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to get a new Council of Ministers. Forty-three ministers are likely to be sworn in today.