Two Men For Whom BJP Has Gone The Extra Mile In Modi 3.0

Within the portfolio list of Modi 3.0 lie the names of two individuals from minority communities for whom the Narendra Modi government has gone the proverbial extra mile to accommodate them as Ministers.

Ravneet Singh Bittu, a Sikh from Punjab, and George Kurian, a Christian from Kerala, have been made Ministers though they are members of neither house of the Parliament. While Bittu, a three-time MP, lost his election narrowly from Ludhiana, Kurian did not even contest a Lok Sabha election and is not much known in Kerala as well.

Both Bittu and Kurian will now be brought into the Rajya Sabha as MPs by the BJP as some Rajya Sabha seats have been vacated for BJP with Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav winning the Lok Sabha elections this time. Bittu has been given the charge of Minister of State of Food Processing and the Minister of State in Railways. Kurian has been given the charge of Minister of State in Ministry of Minority Affairs; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

“It was important to send a message in Punjab by making Bittu a minister as this is a state where BJP is now fighting alone and has increased its vote share significantly though BJP could not win any seat. Bittu is a three-time MP but Congress never made him a Union Minister in their term – BJP has made him one within months of him joining the BJP,” a senior party leader said. Bittu lost by around 21,000 votes to the state Congress chief Raja Amarinder Singh Warring in Ludhiana but had aggressively campaigned in Modi’s name during the elections.

He is the grandson of former Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh, who was assassinated by terrorists in August 1995. Kurian is a Christian face from Kerala who is the State General Secretary of the BJP’s Kerala unit – a state where the BJP has big ambitions after it has won a seat this time in Thrissur where Suresh Gopi has emerged victorious by 75,000 votes and has also become a Minister. Kurian’s selection is part of BJP’s Christian outreach. BJP has also made Rajya Sabha MP and its Tamil Nadu chief, L. Murugan a Minister again, though he lost from Niligris to DMK’s A. Raja.