Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in sync with his Saffron predecessors, has once again used Gujarat as his experimental base to implement a no-repeat theory. A similar theory was introduced by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, with the exception that he continued to be the Chief Minister while sacking his entire old cabinet and he introduced several family members.
Contradicting that, in Modi style, he has pushed for a No Repeat Theory by replacing one-and-all including, the Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani.
A new first time MLA, Bhupendra Patel, is a protege of Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel. He is someone who has gone pretty close to Home Minister Amit Shah in the last four-and-a-half years and has been anointed as the 17th Chief Minister of Gujarat. Today, he “formed” his council of ministers. The 24-membered Ministry has only three ministers who have earlier been ministers, and that too is not in the Vijay Rupani cabinet. All others are fresh faces.
But inexperience is not the issue we are addressing. They are young and dedicated to their constituencies but they are not educated enough. Considering their age, family background and geographies, it is startling to note that the level of education of the Bhupendra Patel ministry is lower than the Ministers, most of them much more aged who were in the Vijay Rupani cabinet.
The new team CM Patel boasts of a new and vibrant BJP just 14 months before the crucial assembly elections. New plans or newer ideas or perhaps newer ways of gaining votes, only time will tell. But the newly elected Team CM Patel has more people lagging in education as compared to the former CM Vijaybhai Rupani.
Here’s a brief educational analysis of the two cabinets.
While CM Patel’s team has nine graduates and one doctorate, the Rupani government had 11 double graduates and graduates. In the case of the newly elected CM Patel, starting from CM Patel (Diploma in Civil Engineering), Rajendra Trivedi – BSc (Honours), LLB (Special), Jitubhai Savjibhai Vaghani (Bcom, LLB), Kanu Desai (Post Graduate), Arjunsinh Chauhan (BCom), Brijesh Merja (BCom, Diploma in Journalism), Manishaben Vakil (MA), Kuberbhai Dindor (PhD) and Gajendra Parmar (BA).
In the Rupani-led government, starting from the former CM Vijay Rupani (BA and LLB), Bhupdenrasinh Chudasam (BA, Bed, LLB), Saurabh Patel (MBA), Ganpatsinh Vasava – (MA in Gujarati), Jayesh Radadiya (BE in Civil Engineering), Kunwarjibhai Bavaliya (BSc and Bed), Pradipsinh Jadeja (BSc in Chemistry), Parshottambhai Solanki (Diploma in Electrical Engineering), Jaydratsinhji Parmar (Bcom, DTP, LLB, DLP), Ishwarsinh Patel (BA and LLB) and Vibhavari Dave (MCom).
CM Patel has six ministers in his cabinet who have cleared higher secondary levels. They are Rishikesh Patel, Jagdish Ishwarbhai Panchal, Mukeshbhai Patel, Nimishaben Suthar, Kirtisinh Vaghela, and Purnesh Modi. Whilst Rupani’s team had only two names, Nitin Patel and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja.
Interestingly, there is not much difference when choosing ministers who managed to jump the secondary education fence in their lives. In Team CM Patel, six ministers have passed their grade 10 examinations. They are Ishwarbhai Dhedabhai Patel, Kiritsinh Rana, Pradeepsinh Parmar, Raghavji Makwana, Vinodbhai Moradiya and Nareshbhai Maganbhai Patel. However, in former CM Rupani’s cabinet, seven ministers, namely – RC Faldu, Kaushik Patel, Dilip Thakor, Ishwarbhai Parmar, Jawarbhai Chavda, Bachubhai Khabad, and Yogesh Patel, were secondary pass.
Both ministers have had their share of selecting ministers who barely made their educational cut. For instance, CM Patel has four on his list – Devabhai Malam (4th pass), Harsh Sanghvi (9th pass), Jitu Chaudhary (9th pass) and Arvind Raiyani. In Rupani’s cabinet, there were three ministers namely – Vasanbhai Ahir (5th pass), Ramanlal Patkar (8th pass) and Kishor Kanani (8th pass) – who put education as perhaps the least important aspect of their lives.
