Meet the members who come from a humblest background in Modi's team

The number of ministers facing criminal cases has increased from 31% in 2014 to 39% in 2019. The new Modi council of ministers, however, is fractionally poorer

In the selection of its ministers and portfolio distribution, Narendra Modi government 2.0 has tried to shape a narrative of entrusting with ministerial responsibilities some of its Lok Sabha members who hail from humble backgrounds or exhibit a sense of rootedness to their immediate society.

Odisha’s Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Assam’s Rameswar Teli, Rajasthan’s Kailash Choudhary and West Bengal’s Debasree Chaudhuri, all ministers of state in the new government, are some of the examples of this.

Sarangi, 64, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member from Odisha’s Balasore and former Bajrang Dal coordinator of the state, received some of the loudest cheers when he took the oath of office at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday evening.

Sarangi will be the minister of state in the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises as well as in the ministry of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries.

According to an analysis by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms, Sarangi is the poorest of the 57 ministers, apart from the prime minister, sworn in on Thursday. However, Sarangi is also one minister who faces the most criminal cases.

Sarangi, according to his election affidavit submitted to the Election Commission, has assets worth Rs 24 lakh. He is a two-time legislator in the Odisha Assembly.

Sarangi hit the headlines when at a public rally in Odisha a couple of years back, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi ignored other leaders on the dais to walk up to him and held his hands. Sarangi, frequently photographed taking a bath in public under a handpump and cycling around his constituency, lives in a thatched hut.

However, Sarangi’s history has a darker side. According to the ADR analysis, Sarangi, also known as “Odisha’s Modi”, faces seven “serious” sections of Indian Penal Code, including for criminal intimidation, rioting, promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, etc., and extortion. He also faces criminal prosecution under 15 other sections of the IPC. Some of these cases were lodged when the BJP was an ally of the Biju Janata Dal in a coalition government in Odisha until 2009.

According to the ADR report, as state president of the Bajrang Dal, which is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Sarangi was arrested by the Odisha police in March 2002 on charges of rioting, arson, assault and damaging government property. A mob of 500, wielding lathis and trishuls, had indulged in damaging property at the Odisha Legislative Assembly building.

In January 1999, Sarangi was the chief coordinator Bajrang Dal’s Odisha unit when Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, aged 11 and 7, were burnt alive by a group of men with alleged links to Bajrang Dal in Keonjhar. Staines and his sons were sleeping in a station wagon in the village of Manoharpur when their vehicle was set on fire. However, Sarangi denied his involvement when questioned in the case.

According to the ADR analysis, Rajasthan’s Kailash Choudhary with Rs 24 lakh worth of assets is the second poorest in the Modi council of ministers. He defeated the Congress’s Manvendra Singh, the son of former BJP leader Jaswant Singh. Choudhary is now minister of state in the ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare. V Muraleedharan, number three on the list of the poorest ministers, with Rs 27 lakh worth of total assets, is the minister of state in the ministry of external affairs and also in the ministry of parliamentary affairs. 

Assam’s Rameswar Teli, with Rs 43 lakh worth of assets, is minister of state in the ministry of food processing industries and West Bengal’s Debasree Chaudhuri with total assets of Rs 61 lakh is the minister of state in the ministry of women and child development.

According to ADR, the number of ministers facing criminal cases has increased from 31 per cent in 2014 to 39 per cent in 2019. The new Modi council of ministers, however, is fractionally poorer. According to ADR, crorepati ministers are 91 per cent, down from 92 per cent in 2014. However, average assets of ministers are up from Rs 14.25 crore to Rs 14.72 crore.