Amit Shah’s Right Hand Man: Why Appointment Of G Kishan Reddy As MoS Home Ministry Is Big Move

The MP from Secunderabad, G Kishan Reddy today took charge as the Minister of State for Home Affairs. He will be assisting Home Minister Amit Shah in maintaining India’s internal security.

The 55-year-old Reddy has a reputation for being gentle, while being a hard, steady worker. Reddy has risen through the BJP ranks, won three consecutive terms as an MLA, and also led the BJP state unit.

The Home Ministry has been viewed as among the most important ministries in terms of seniority and role. Its ambit, according to the ministry website, covers Internal security (covering police forces, insurgency, terrorism, activities of inimical foreign agencies, terrorist financing, national integration and communal harmony, etc), J&K Affairs, Border Management, Home and States -- departments that function, not in water-tight compartments, but with each other.

Further, there are divisions for Left-wing terrorism, Women Safety, Counter Terrorism and Counter radicalisation, Cyber and Information Security division, Disaster Management division, North-east Division, and so on.

Kishan Reddy’s induction in the cabinet was earlier being seen as a means to spread the BJP’s hold in Telangana, because he was someone who had the mettle and courage to take the KCR-led TRS on.

The Home portfolio, however, may have specific logic: Hyderabad has been facing several security concerns, increasingly. In 2018, NIA had nabbed youth for their links to ISIS, allegedly involved in a conspiracy to motivate, radicalise and recruit Indian Muslim youth.

Rohingya refugees have also been arrested for illegally obtaining Aaadhar cards and Pan cards, and now also for selling narcotics.

BJP leader, Bandaru Dattatreya had alleged in April that though Hyderabad is turning into a safe haven for Islamic terrorist activities, the police are not able to take stern action because the TRS is aligned with AIMIM.

There was also Maoist violence on the Telangana-Chhattisgarh last year, which had confirmed reports that Maoists had been able to push the ‘Red corridor’ into the South of India.

News reports have also surfaced about anti-national interests working in the guise of welfare groups. For instance, the recent serious allegations against Telangana Welfare schools for brainwashing students to compromise national security - the accused party mulling defamation charges, notwithstanding.

On NSA Ajit Doval’s suggestion, a think tank on Internal Security had also been started in Hyderabad.

According to its founder, there was no think tank on internal security in South India, and Hyderabad was particularly chosen because of its strategic position, being important to the country “in geopolitical, geo-economic and geo-strategic contexts”.