Anant Hegde dropped from Modi cabinet for hardline Hindutva approach, controversial statements?

Bengaluru: The new council of ministers announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday saw four MPs from the state being inducted into the Cabinet.

However among the few ministers, who were part of previous Modi government and did not make it to the new dispensation was
Uttara Kannada member of parliament, Anant Kumar Hegde.

Notably Anantkumar Hegde, who held the skill development portfolio in the union ministry previously, had won the Lok Sabha polls by the highest vote margin in the state.

Few have opined that the hardline Hindutva approach adopted by Hegde as also the controversial statements made by him that often put his party leaders in a tight spot were the reasons for him being dropped from the Cabinet.

It may be recalled that the minister had faced a lot of criticism after he claimed that his party, the ruling BJP, will “soon change the Constitution.” Recently too he seemed to have endorsed a tweet by Sadhvi Pragya which referred to Gandhiji’s assassin, Godse, as a patriot.

Hegde wrote in the tweet, “Am glad that 7 decades later today’s generation debates in a changed perceptional environment and gives good scope for the condemned to be heard upon. #NathuramGodse would have finally felt happy with this debate! (sic)”

The BJP party leadership had distanced itself from the comment and even sought clarifications for the tweet.

A senior leader of the party said that Hegde missed the bus for these reasons. This apart Hegde he said had not delivered up to the Prime Minister’s expectations after having been given charge of the skill development ministry.