Ravi Shankar Prasad
resigned today, adding to the list of high-profile casualties of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet reshuffle at a time the government has been facing criticism over its handling of Covid, rising fuel prices and its feud with foreign social media giants.
Ravi Shankar Prasad was Minister for Law and Electronics and IT and had lately been locked in a bitter row with companies like Twitter over new IT rules.
Ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle scheduled to begin at 6pm on Wednesday, health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, chemicals and fertilisers minister DV Sadananda Gowda, labour minister Santosh Gangwar, education minister of state Sanjay Dhotre, minister of state for women and child development Debasree Chaudhuri, minister of state for jal shakti Rattan Lal Kataria and minister of state for environment Babul Supriyo stepped down from their posts.
Thaawarchand Gehlot who was in charge of the social justice and empowerment ministry had resigned on Tuesday and was made the Governor of Karnataka.
In a major reshuffle that will bring focus on equal representation of gender, caste and community, 36 new ministers on Wednesday took oath and seven ministers of state are being promoted.