Modi’s FALSE Promise to DK? Fisheries Does Not Get Separate Ministry as per Cabinet Assignments

Modi’s FALSE Promise to DK? Fisheries Does Not Get Separate Ministry as per Cabinet Assignments

Mangaluru: One day after Narendra Modi was sworn in as India’s Prime Minister for the second time, a list detailing the Union Council of Ministers and their respective cabinet portfolios was announced on Friday, May 31. Almost 54 Union Government ministers including Cabinet ministers and ‘ministers of state’ (MoS) will together oversee over 24 ministries that pertain to different sectors of India. However, there was another interesting revelation that was brought about by Friday’s announcement. There was neither a separate ministry nor a separate minister to manage the fishing sector of India.

India’s fishing industry spans the entire country and makes up a large part of the nation’s import industry. The Indian fishing community includes more than 1.45 crore people who depend on the industry for their livelihood. The fisheries sector alone contributes to 5 percent of India’s agricultural GDP and over 1 percent of the entire GDP. However, despite carrying such enormous economic value, the fishing sector and its various participants have been mostly ignored by past governments. There has been a serious lack of reasonable reforms and sustainable governmental policies that could benefit all the stakeholders, even the poorest ones, of the fishing industry.

The Promise

When Modi visited Mangaluru and held a triumphant campaign rally at the city’s Nehru Maidan, he explicitly stated that he would create a separate ministry for fisheries as soon as the election results were announced and he was reelected to the Prime Ministerial Office. His exact words were, “In order to safeguard the interest of fishermen and fishing activities, a separate ministry will be set up at the Centre.”

In fact, local BJP MP Candidates like Shobha Karandlaje continuously reiterated this promise all through her re-election campaign in an attempt to grab votes from the fishing community of the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru district. Even Kannada actress and BJP’s star campaigner Tara said, “The Modi Government has recently promised to split the agriculture department to create an exclusive fisheries department. This is a big advantage for fishermen and women” while campaigning at the State Bank fish market on behalf of Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel.

However, the Modi Government’s first promise of creating an exclusive fisheries ministry came in the month of February when interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said, “To provide sustained and focused attention towards the development of this sector, our Government has decided to create a separate Department of Fisheries.”

White Lies or Deliberate Misinformation?

Last Friday’s announcement of the Union Council showed that BJP MP (from Bihar’s Begusarai district) Giriraj Singh was the ‘Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries’. Although sectors such as animal husbandry, dairying, and fisheries were previously clubbed with the Agricultural Ministry and now seems to have been separated from the same, it still does not validate Modi and his cadre’s promise of creating a “separate” or “exclusive” ministry with a separate minister overseeing the department.

This was also pointed out by a political figure from another coastal constituency (Thiruvananthapuram), three-time Congress Party MP Shashi Tharoor. Tharoor took to Twitter to express his concerns saying, “The portfolio allocation is interesting, with many positives & some areas of concern. As an MP from a coastal constituency I am disappointed that Fisheries, despite a campaign promise, has again been denied a separate Ministry & the attention of a full-time Minister.”

On the other hand, Prime Minister Modi has successfully fulfilled his other campaign promise of creating a ‘Jal Shakti’ Ministry to specifically deal with integrated water issues, with Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as the newly appointed minister. Then why did Modi stop short of creating a separate fisheries ministry? The language of the Prime Minister’s campaign promises clearly stated a “separate” ministry, and there is little to no chance of misinterpreting such a simple word. Even though the attempt to carve out animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries from the agricultural ministry is a welcome move, there is more than enough evidence that warrants the creation of an exclusive fisheries ministry; and since most of Coastal Karnataka has been BJP loyalists for some time now, one could argue that it is the least that the BJP party could do for its fellow supporters.