NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the oath of office on Thursday for a second consecutive five-year term and included his closest aide and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah in the new cabinet together with former foreign secretary S. Jaishankar.

Even as speculation was rife whether Mr Shah would get the powerful home portfolio there was greater certainty that Mr Jaishankar could be leading the foreign ministry.

Former external affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj did not contest the elections, which swept the Modi team to its second emphatic victory earlier this month.

Another major absentee from the new team is Arun Jaitley who has opted out on grounds of deteriorating health.

The foreign ministry and the finance ministry slots are up for re-assignment. There is speculation whether BJP president Amit Shah would relinquish the pivotal post and if so who would be his successor to lead the party which has been controlled tightly by Mr Modi.

In March, Mr Jaishankar had received the Padma Shri award from President Ram Nath Kovind. He was the country’s longest-serving foreign secretary in four decades and helped craft much of PM Modi’s foreign policy. He was appointed in January 2015, just few days before his retirement, replacing Sujata Singh, whose term was abruptly curtailed by the government.

A former ambassador to China, Mr Jaishankar had played a key role in resolving the crisis following the standoff in Ladakh’s Depsang and the Doklam areas, handling the tough negotiations with Beijing.

He was also a key member of the team that worked on the nuclear deal with the US. The deal, initiated in 2005, took several years to craft, and was signed by the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh in 2007.

Earlier in his career, Mr Jaishankar had been posted in Moscow and several other European capitals, and Tokyo. He also served as First Secretary and Political Advisor to the Indian Peacekeeping Force in Sri Lanka.

According to Reuters, Amit Shah would be taking over the finance portfolio at a sensitive time. He will probably need to move quickly to stimulate an economy beset by weak farm incomes, slow jobs growth and falling sales of key consumer goods including cars and motorbikes.

India’s main opposition Congress party is trying to pick up the pieces after its second straight election loss. Its president, Rahul Gandhi, has offered to resign. The party said on Thursday it would not let representatives take part in televised debates for a month while it analyses its defeat.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2019