Pralhad Joshi was given additional charge of the Ministry of Education on Saturday, hours after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned. President Droupadi Murmu accepted the resignation on the Prime Minister's advice and directed that Joshi take the portfolio alongside the ones he already runs.
Those are not small jobs. Joshi holds Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and New and Renewable Energy. Adding Education to that list means one minister now answers for the public distribution system, the renewable energy build out, and the examination machinery that has just cost a colleague his job.
Joshi is a four time Lok Sabha member from Dharwad in Karnataka and a long serving organisational figure in the BJP, having been the party's Karnataka president from 2012 to 2016. He was Minister of Parliamentary Affairs from 2019 until 2024 before moving to his current portfolios after the general election.
Giving a portfolio to a serving minister rather than making a fresh appointment is the least disruptive option available, and it signals that the government treats this as a handover rather than a change of direction. Whether that holds depends on what the Education Ministry does with the examination legislation now in front of Parliament.