Reorganizing NITI Aayog: Tripling the Number of Special Invitee Seats by the Government

On Tuesday, the Government of India rehabilitated the NITI Aayog, which includes 15 Union Ministers under the Aayog along with four full-time members. All the seats have representatives from the BJP allies in positions of ex-officio members or special invitees. The major rescheduling of the NITI Aayog included an increase in the number of special invitees from five to eleven, which grabbed attention and invited arguments over the topic. 

In the list of invitees, they have included allies like Jitan Ram Manjhi (HAM), Chirag Paswan (LJP), Rajiv Ranjan Singh (JDU), HD Kumaraswamy (JDS), and KR Naidu (TDP). These candidates have been provided a seat, but the leaders from the Shinde’s Shiv Sena were not given a seat, which raised heated arguments on social media from the leaders. Other than the NDA allies, the special invitees list includes BJP leaders such as Annpurna Devi, JP Nadda, Virendra Kumar, Nitin Gadkari, Rao Inderjit Singh, and Jual Oram. These are the 11 candidates who have been given a spot in the rescheduling of the NITI Aayog. 

The official notification from the website stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the chairperson of NITI Aayog, and the vice chairperson position will be continued by economist Suman K. Bery. On the list of ex-officios, the positions will be held by Home Minister Amit Shah, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Agricultural Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Other than this, we have scientist VK Saraswat, pediatrician VK Paul, agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, and micro-economist Arvind Virmani. The leader will play the role of a full-time member of the government think tank. 

In a Facebook post by NITI Aayog, it said, “Embracing a vision for holistic development and innovation, NITI Aayog is on a journey of transformative initiatives that promise to redefine India’s future.” The notification from Rashtrapati Bhawan quoted, “In continuation of the Cabinet Secretariat notification, the Prime Minister has approved the revised composition of NITI Aayog.” 

The leader of the Shiv Sena (UBT), Priyanka Chaturvedi, attacked the BJP government for not providing a seat for the Shiv Sena leader in the latest reshuffling of the NITI Aayog. She expressed her disagreement with the latest changes in the NITI Aayog through a post on X, where she wrote, “There is no place for Shinde Sena in the reconstituted NITI Aayog. When ‘NITI’ is only an immoral power grab, you can understand the exclusion.”

She indirectly termed the NITI Aayog an “immoral power grab.” The leader pointed out her dissatisfaction with the new changes in the NITI Aayog.