Minister for Home Affairs (India)

The Home Minister, or more properly the Minister for Home Affairs, is a position in the Indian Cabinet, at both State and Union levels. The Home Ministry is one of the most important, powerful and high profile ministry after the Prime Minister. The minister is in charge of the internal administration of the country.

Role of Ministry of Home Affairs

• all matters relating to Centre-State and Inter-State relations;
• all matters related to internal security;
• maintenance of law and order within the country;
• matters like Citizenship and Naturalisation Census of Population, National Anthem, National Flag, Official Languages; and
• basic functions under the Constitution like notification of assumption of office by the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and other Ministers; notification of appointment, resignation and removal of Governors of States and Lieut. Governors and Administrators in Union Territories.

Departments of Ministry of Home Affairs

Department of Border Management

Department of Border Management, dealing with management of borders, including coastal borders.

Management of Borders
India Shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. Home ministry is responsible for Managing the Borders of the country like Guarding the borders.(i.e) Border Guarding Force Border Security Force (BSF) is the Border Guarding Force at India's Land Borders. Border Out Posts BSF is presently manning Border outpost (BOPs) on India's borders.

Department of Internal Security

Department of Internal Security, dealing with police, law and order and rehabilitation.National Investigation Agency (India) is come under Ministry of Home Affairs.It is a federal agency approved by the Indian Government to combat terror in India. The agency is empowered to deal with terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states. The National Investigation Agency Bill 2008 to create the agency was moved in Parliament by Union Home Minister on 16 December 2008.

Department of J & K Affairs

Department of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Affairs, dealing with the constitutional provisions in respect of the State of Jammu & Kashmir and all other matters relating to the State excluding those with which the Ministry of External Affairs is concerned.

Department of Home

Dealing with the notification of assumption of office by the President and Vice President, notification of appointment of the Prime Minister and other Ministers, etc

Department of Official Language

Dealing with the implementation of the provisions of the Constitution relating to official languages and the provisions of the Official Languages Act, 1963.

Department of States

Dealing with Centre-State relations, Inter-State relations, Union Territories and Freedom Fighters’ pension.

Home Ministers - Past and PRESENT

In the past this position has been occupied by prominent statesman and politicians such as

• Sardar Patel
• C. Rajagopalachari
• Kailash Nath Katju
• Govind Ballabh Pant
• Lal Bahadur Sastri
• Gulzari Lal Nanda
• Uma Shankar Dikshit (1973-1974)
• Morarji Desai
• Chaudhary Charan Singh
• Yashwantrao Chavan
• Shankarrao Chavan
• Giani Zail Singh
• Kasu Brahmananda Reddy
• P. V. Narasimha Rao
• Mufti Mohammad Sayeed
• Buta Singh
• Indrajit Gupta
• Lal Krishna Advani
• Shivraj Patil
• P.Chidambaram.

Shivraj Patil was forced to resign from the post of Minister Of Home Affairs on 30 Nov 2008 after a string of terrorist attacks during his tenure, most notably the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was succeeded by the incumbent P. Chidambaram who is the current home minister in the Government of India.

See also

List of Ministers for Home Affairs of India

External links

• Home Ministry, Govt. of India