NEW DELHI: The wholesome change to the Union Law Ministry saw Minister of State Prof Satya Pal Singh Baghel too move out of the ministry, just hours after Union Minister Kiren Rijiju was moved to the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Prof Baghel will now work under Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union minister of health and family welfare, along with Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, minister of state in the department.
“The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has been pleased to direct that Prof SP Singh Baghel, Minister of State, be assigned as Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in place of the Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and Justice,” Rashtrapati Bhavan said.
The move comes just hours after the government decided to replace Arunachal Pradesh MP Kiren Rijiju with Rajasthan MP Arjun Singh Meghwal.
Meghwal currently serves as the minister of state (MoS) for parliamentary affairs and culture. With this appointment, Meghwal’s responsibilities expand to include the important ministry of law and justice. He will handle the new ministry as a minister of independent charge.
In a notification on Thursday, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said that President Droupadi Murmu has elevated Meghwal’s standing in the government on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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Prof Baghel started his political journey riding on the Samajwadi Party’s bicycle. He represented Jalesar for three consecutive terms (1998-2009) on the Samajwadi Party ticket.
Prof Baghel then switched to the Bahujan Samaj Party, which made him a Rajya Sabha MP from 2010-14. In 2014, he joined the BJP and was elected an MLA from Tundla. He went on to become a cabinet minister in CM Yogi Adityanath’s government.
In 2019, he became an MP from Agra. He was made MoS for Law and Justice in 2021.
While the appointment of Meghwal was seen as an important move ahead of the Rajasthan assembly election later this year, many felt that the change was due to the Ministry’s difference of opinion on the collegium system of the judiciary. Detractors also say that Rijiju’s confrontational attitude with the judiciary could be one of the reasons behind his departure from the key ministry.