New Delhi: According to a new analysis issued by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) poll rights group, at least 42 percent of the 78 ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Union cabinet following the massive reshuffle earlier this week had announced criminal charges against them. As per the research, four of these ministers have been involved in attempted murder cases.
Following their oath-taking ceremony earlier this week on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assigned responsibilities to the newly-inducted legislators. A total of 15 ministers were appointed to the cabinet, and 28 legislators were appointed as Union ministers of state. As a result, the Prime Minister's council of ministers currently has a total of 78 members.
The ADR used electoral affidavits to highlight 33 ministers (42 percent) in the new cabinet who had declared criminal proceedings against them in its analysis of the Union council of ministers in the 17th Lok Sabha following its expansion. Of these, 24 ministers (or 31% of the total number of members) have been charged with'serious' criminal offences, such as murder, attempted murder, or robbery.
The ADR is a polling rights organisation that regularly releases reports ahead of elections, tallying affidavits to determine politicians' criminal, financial, and other background facts.
Furthermore, according to the ADR report, about 90% of the new Union cabinet (70 ministers) are millionaires, meaning they have reported total assets of more than ten million rupees (one crore). Jyotiraditya Scindia (over 379 crore), Piyush Goyal (over 95 crore), Narayan Rane (over 87 crore), and Rajeev Chandrasekhar (over 64 crore) are the four ministers with the most money. - have been categorised as 'high asset ministers', which means they have declared assets worth more than ₹50 crore.
The average asset value per minister was determined to be roughly 16.24 crore, according to the research. Pratima Bhoumik of Tripura (over 6 lakh), John Barla of West Bengal (over 14 lakh), Kailash Choudhary of Rajasthan (over 24 lakh), Bishweswar Tudu of Odisha (over 27 lakh), and V Muraleedharan from Maharashtra (over ₹27 lakh) are the cabinet ministers with the smallest declared assets.