One of the first things G. Kishan Reddy arranged when he checked into his office at the iconic North Block building on Raisina Hills was a miniature statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Home Minister of Independent India. Mr. Reddy said he owed to Patel the liberation of the then princely state of Hyderabad on September 17, 1948 from the Nizam’s rule. The statue would be an ode to the illustrious leader, he said.
A first-time MP from Secunderabad in Telangana, Mr. Reddy was hand-picked by Home Minister Amit Shah to assist him in the functioning of the high-profile Ministry as a Minister of State. Like Mr. Reddy, who had been the State president of the BJP in Telangana till 2016, the other Minister of State Nityanand Rai held the post of State president of Bihar.
But an examination of the division of work between the two junior Ministers, done by Mr. Shah last week, shows that the Secunderabad MP got the lion’s share of the pie.
High-profile job
This is the first time the functioning of important divisions such as Jammu and Kashmir, Left-wing extremism, northeast region, Union Territory, women safety, internal security, counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation, cyber-information Security and judicial have been bunched together and vested in one Minister. Mr. Shah will be at the helm taking crucial decisions.
Mr. Reddy’s high-profile job description has led officials to believe that he is the blue-eyed boy of Mr. Shah.
In the previous Narendra Modi Cabinet, when Rajnath Singh was the Home Minister, he was careful to allocate work equally among his deputies — Kiren Rijiju and Hansraj Gangaram Ahir. Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhury had been a Minister of State for Home till July 2016.
With 23 divisions, the Home Ministry is the largest among all the Ministries. Many joint secretaries do not even have an office space in North Block and operate from extended offices at the National Stadium at India Gate.
The work division was made almost 20 days after Mr. Shah took charge on June 1. It was also imperative as Parliament is in session and Ministers would have to prepare for the Question Hour session in both the Houses.
Mr. Reddy, a three-time MLA, lost the Amberpet Assembly seat to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in December 2018. He bounced back and won the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat. The BJP won four seats in Telangana, the party’s best performance in the southern State.
On June 20, Mr. Reddy accompanied the four Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs in the Rajya Sabha, who joined the BJP, to Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu’s office where they tendered their resignation.
He fiercely opposed the Telangana government’s proposal for a 12% quota for Muslims in educational institutes and government jobs. In the past, he campaigned against illegal slaughterhouses in the State alleging that a “beef mafia” operated in Hyderabad.
After he was appointed, Mr. Reddy told a daily on June 1 that “Hyderabad had become a safe zone for terrorists.” Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi of the AIMIM flayed him for his “irresponsible and disgraceful” remarks.
Last week when Mr. Owaisi was taking oath in the Lok Sabha, the BJP MPs raised ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ slogans. Mr. Reddy signalled the Treasury benches to stop the sloganeering. It turns out he was the only Minister present in the House and it was his responsibility to ensure its smooth functioning.
