About a week back, we had suggested the inclusion of a candidate from Manipur in the proposed reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministry and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had done it on Wednesday by inducting the Inner Manipur MP Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh as Minister of State. He is the fourth such minister at the Centre. The first was RK Jaichandra Singh who was the first Union Minister from Manipur during the time of Rajiv Gandhi between 1985 and 1988 as the Union Minister for Sports and Youth affairs, and later on as the Chemicals and Petrochemicals Minister. The second was Prof Meijinlung Kamson who was elected as a Congress MP from Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency and served as a Union Minister of State for Home Affairs from 1995–96.
Th Chaoba was the third from Manipur to be inducted in the Union Council of Ministers, when he was elected on a breakaway faction Manipur State Congress Party. He was appointed as MoS for Culture and Youth Affairs and Sports from October 13, 1999 to February 2, 2000 and MoS for Food Processing Industries, Ministry of Agriculture from May 27, 2000 to September 1, 2001. Except for RK Jaichandra who held independent charge, the others were junior ministers working under Cabinet ministers.
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The interesting part this time is the allocation of portfolios to Rajkumar Ranjan Singh. That a Minister of State hailing from a remote state of India should find himself in the Ministry of External Affairs is indeed a surprise. Of course, the Education ministry is also a feather in the cap of RK Ranjan as most of his predecessors were in what is considered minor departments. The queer mix of totally different departments of External Affairs and Education allocated to him could perhaps be because of his background in Environment issues and as an educational administrator. He is a PhD holder in Geography. After teaching in colleges in Manipur, he joined Manipur University (MU) as an Assistant Professor in the department of Earth Sciences. He was appointed Registrar at MU and served from 2004 to 2008. In his early days, he worked in the realm of cultural integration under the tutelage of giants like the late Maharajkumar Priyobarta Singh (MKPB), the first Manipuri Chief Minister of Manipur and historian of repute Gangmumei Kamei. Thereafter, he also took the lead in popularisation of Science in remote corners of the state and raised issues of environmental concern.
Indeed, he was a trailblazer in environment issues and climate change and many of his associates are still in action today.
In 2013, he joined the BJP and contested the Lok Sabha elections the very next year. However, he was defeated by the ruling Congress candidate. In 17th Lok Sabha elections held in 2019 with a BJP led government in the state, he was elected as Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency on the BJP ticket. BJP could have won the Outer Manipur seat also, had not its alliance partner NPF put up its own candidate and NPP muddying up the waters. The NPF candidate who won the Outer Manipur seat was a NDA ally, while the BJP candidate Leishemba Sanajaoba won the lone Rajya Sabha seat. But, RK Ranjan turned out to be the natural choice for induction in the Union Council of Ministers, in view of the state assembly elections set to be held early next year. Now, with his background in environment and climate change action he could be working in the areas of climate change and sustainable development goals at the world stage, which would supplement the efforts of the Narendra Modi government in Climate Change action. In the education sector, it is expected of Dr Ranjan to help orchestrate a complete overhaul of the education system in the state.
