What are types of ministers in India?
Q. Which of the following are categories of ministers?
1) Cabinet Ministers.
2) Ministers of State.
3) Deputy Ministers.- Published on 01 Mar 17a. 1, 3
b. 1, 2
c. 2, 3
d. All of the above
ANSWER: All of the above
- The council of ministers consists of three categories of ministers, namely, cabinet ministers, ministers of state, and deputy ministers.
- The difference between them lies in their respective ranks, emoluments, and political importance.
- At the top of all these ministers stands the Prime Minister.
- The cabinet ministers head the important ministries of the Central government like home, defense, finance, external affairs and so forth.
- They are members of the cabinet, attend its meetings and play an important role in deciding policies.
- Thus, their responsibilities extend over the entire gamut of Central government.
- The ministers of state can either be given independent charge of ministries/departments or can be attached to cabinet ministers.
- In case of attachment, they may either be given the charge of departments of the ministries headed by the cabinet ministers or allotted specific items of work related to the ministries headed by cabinet ministers.
- In both the cases, they work under the supervision as well as under the overall charge and responsibility of the cabinet ministers.
- In case of independent charge, they perform the same functions and exercise the same powers in relation to their ministries/departments as cabinet ministers do.
- But, they are not members of the cabinet and do not attend the cabinet meetings unless specially invited.
- The deputy ministers are not given independent charge of ministries/departments.
- They are attached to the cabinet ministers or ministers of state and assist them in their administrative, political, and parliamentary duties.
- They are not members of the cabinet and do not attend cabinet meetings.
- It must also be mentioned here that there is one more category of ministers, called parliamentary secretaries, who have no department under their control.
- They are the members of the last category of the council of ministers (which is also known as the ‘ministry’).
- They are attached to the senior ministers and assist them in the discharge of their parliamentary duties.
- However, since 1967, no parliamentary secretaries have been appointed except during the first phase of Rajiv Gandhi Government.
- At times, the council of ministers may also include a deputy prime minister.
- Thus, Sardar Patel in Pandit Nehru’s ministry, Morarji Desai in the Indira Gandhi’s Ministry, Charan Singh in the Morarji Desai’s ministry, Jagjivan Ram in the Charan Singh’s ministry, Devi Lal in the V. P. Singh’s ministry and L. K. Advani in the A. B. Vajpayee’s ministry served as deputy prime ministers.
- The deputy prime ministers are appointed mostly for political reasons.
