Minister of Home Affairs (India) explained

Post:	Minister of Home Affairs
Flag:	Flag of India.svg
Flagsize:	110px
Flagcaption:	Flag of India
Insignia:	Ministry of Home Affairs India.svg
Insigniasize:	280px
Insigniacaption:	Emblem of India
Incumbent:	Amit Shah
Department:	Ministry of Home Affairs
Member Of:	Cabinet of India Cabinet Committee on Security
Reports To:	President of India Prime Minister of India Parliament of India
Appointer:	President of India
Appointer Qualified:	on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of India
First:	Vallabhbhai Patel
Deputy:	Minister of State for Home Affairs
Abbreviation:	MHA

The Minister of Home Affairs (or simply, the Home Minister, short-form HM) is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the home minister is the maintenance of the internal security of India; the country's large police force comes under its jurisdiction. Occasionally, they are assisted by the Minister of State of Home Affairs and the lower-ranked Deputy Minister of Home Affairs.

Ever since the time of independent India's first Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the office has been seen as second in seniority only to the Prime Minister in the union cabinet. Like Patel, several Home Ministers have since held the additional portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister. As of February 2020, three Home Ministers have gone on to become the Prime Minister: Lal Bahadur Shastri, Charan Singh and P. V. Narasimha Rao. L.K. Advani, serving from 19 March 1998 to 22 May 2004, has held the office of the Home Minister for the longest continuous period, as of February 2020.

On several occasions, the Prime Minister also held the additional portfolio of the Minister of Home Affairs. Jawaharlal Nehru briefly acted as home minister in 1950 following the demise of Vallabhbhai Patel, Indira Gandhi briefly served as home minister in 1966 following resignation of Gulzarilal Nanda, Morarji Desai held the portfolio from 1978 till 1979, Chandra Shekhar throughout his prime ministerial tenure and H. D. Deve Gowda briefly served as home minister in 1996.

P. Chidambaram who served as the home minister from 2008 till 2012 has the rare distinction of serving as both cabinet minister and minister of state in the ministry. He served as minister of state from 1986 till 1989. The current minister is Amit Shah of the Bharatiya Janata Party who has been in office since 31 May 2019 and succeeded his party colleague Rajnath Singh as the home minister.

Cabinet Ministers

No.	Portrait		Minister	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
1			Vallabhbhai Patel (Deputy Prime Minister)	15 August 1947	12 December 1950		Indian National Congress	Nehru I		Jawaharlal Nehru
			Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime Minister)	12 December 1950	26 December 1950
2			C. Rajagopalachari	26 December 1950	5 November 1951
3			Kailash Nath Katju	5 November 1951	13 May 1952
				13 May 1952	10 January 1955			Nehru II
4			Govind Ballabh Pant	10 January 1955	17 April 1957
				17 April 1957	7 March 1961			Nehru III
5			Lal Bahadur Shastri	26 February 1961	10 April 1962
				2 April 1962	1 September 1963			Nehru IV
6			Gulzarilal Nanda (Prime Minister from 27 May9 June 1964; and 1124 January 1966)	1 September 1963	27 May 1964
				27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I		Self
				9 June 1964	11 January 1966			Shastri		Lal Bahadur Shastri
				11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II		Self
				24 January 1966	9 November 1966			Indira I		Indira Gandhi
			Indira Gandhi (Prime Minister)	9 November 1966	13 November 1966
7			Yashwantrao Chavan	13 November 1966	13 March 1967
				13 March 1967	27 June 1970		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira II
			Indira Gandhi (Prime Minister)	27 June 1970	13 March 1971
				13 March 1971	5 February 1973			Indira III
8			Uma Shankar Dikshit	5 February 1973	10 October 1974
9			Kasu Brahmananda Reddy	10 October 1974	24 March 1977
10			Charan Singh	24 March 1977	1 July 1978		Janata Party	Desai		Morarji Desai
			Morarji Desai (Prime Minister)	1 July 1978	24 January 1979
11			Hirubhai M. Patel	24 January 1979	28 July 1979
(7)			Yashwantrao Chavan (Deputy Prime Minister)	28 July 1979	14 January 1980		Janata Party (Secular)	Charan		Charan Singh
12			Zail Singh	14 January 1980	22 June 1982		Indian National Congress (I)	Indira IV		Indira Gandhi
13			Ramaswamy Venkataraman	22 June 1982	2 September 1982
14			Prakash Chandra Sethi	2 September 1982	19 July 1984
15			P. V. Narasimha Rao	19 July 1984	31 October 1984
				31 October 1984	31 December 1984			Rajiv I		Rajiv Gandhi
16			Shankarrao Chavan	31 December 1984	12 March 1986			Rajiv II
(15)			P. V. Narasimha Rao	12 March 1986	12 May 1986
17			Buta Singh	12 May 1986	2 December 1989
18			Mufti Mohammad Sayeed	2 December 1989	10 November 1990		Janata Dal	Vishwanath		Vishwanath Pratap Singh
			Chandra Shekhar (Prime Minister)	10 November 1990	21 June 1991		Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar		Chandra Shekhar
(17)			Shankarrao Chavan	21 June 1991	16 May 1996		Indian National Congress (I)	Rao		P. V. Narasimha Rao
19			Murli Manohar Joshi	16 May 1996	1 June 1996		Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee I		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
			H. D. Deve Gowda (Prime Minister)	1 June 1996	29 June 1996		Janata Dal	Deve Gowda		H. D. Deve Gowda
20			Indrajit Gupta	29 June 1996	21 April 1997		Communist Party of India
				21 April 1997	19 March 1998			Gujral		Inder Kumar Gujral
21			L. K. Advani (Deputy Prime Minister from 29 June 2002)	19 March 1998	13 October 1999		Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee II		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
				13 October 1999	22 May 2004			Vajpayee III
22			Shivraj Patil	23 May 2004	30 November 2008		Indian National Congress	Manmohan I		Manmohan Singh
23			P. Chidambaram	30 November 2008	22 May 2009
				23 May 2009	31 July 2012			Manmohan II
24			Sushilkumar Shinde	31 July 2012	26 May 2014
25			Rajnath Singh	27 May 2014	30 May 2019		Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
26			Amit Shah	31 May 2019	9 June 2024			Modi II
				10 June 2024	Incumbent			Modi III

Ministers of State

No.	Portrait		Minister	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
1			Rustom Khurshedji Sidhwa	11 October 1951	13 May 1952		Indian National Congress	Nehru I		Jawaharlal Nehru
2			B. N. Datar	14 February 1956	17 April 1957			Nehru II
				17 April 1957	10 April 1962			Nehru III
				16 April 1962	13 February 1963			Nehru IV
3			Ramchandra Martand Hajarnavis	22 February 1963	10 March 1964
4			Jaisukhlal Hathi	10 March 1964	27 May 1964
				27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I		Gulzarilal Nanda
				9 June 1964	11 January 1966			Shastri		Lal Bahadur Shastri
				11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II		Gulzarilal Nanda
				24 January 1966	13 November 1966			Indira I		Indira Gandhi
5			Vidya Charan Shukla	13 March 1967	27 June 1970
6			Ram Niwas Mirdha (Personnel and Administrative Reforms)	27 June 1970	18 March 1971		Indian National Congress (R)
7			K. C. Pant	27 June 1970	18 March 1971
				18 March 1971	9 November 1973			Indira II
8			Om Mehta (Personnel and Administrative Reforms)	10 October 1974	24 March 1977
9			S. D. Patil	14 August 1977	28 July 1979		Janata Party	Desai		Morarji Desai
10			Dhanik Lal Mandal	14 August 1977	15 July 1979
				30 July 1979	14 January 1980		Janata Party (Secular)	Charan		Charan Singh
11			Pendekanti Venkatasubbaiah	14 January 1980	31 October 1984		Indian National Congress (I)	Indira III		Indira Gandhi
12			Yogendra Makwana	14 January 1980	15 January 1982
13			Nihar Ranjan Laskar	15 January 1982	7 February 1984
14			Ram Dulari Sinha	7 February 1984	31 October 1984
(11)			Pendekanti Venkatasubbaiah	4 November 1984	31 December 1984			Rajiv I		Rajiv Gandhi
(14)			Ram Dulari Sinha	4 November 1984	31 December 1984
				31 December 1984	25 September 1985			Rajiv II
15			Arif Mohammad Khan	12 August 1985	25 September 1986
16			P. A. Sangma (States)	25 September 1985	20 January 1986
17			Arun Nehru (Internal Security)
(6)			Ram Niwas Mirdha	14 March 1986	14 June 1986
18			Ghulam Nabi Azad (States)	12 May 1986	22 October 1986
19			P. Chidambaram	24 June 1986	2 December 1989
20			Chintamani Panigrahi	22 October 1986	25 June 1988
21			Santosh Mohan Dev (Internal Security)	25 June 1988	2 December 1989
22			Subodh Kant Sahay	23 April 1990	5 November 1990		Janata Dal	Vishwanath		Vishwanath Pratap Singh
				21 November 1990	21 June 1991		Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar		Chandra Shekhar
23			M. M. Jacob	21 June 1991	17 January 1993		Indian National Congress (I)	Rao		P. V. Narasimha Rao
24			Rajesh Pilot (Internal Security)	18 January 1993	15 September 1995
25			P. M. Sayeed	19 January 1993
26			Syed Sibtey Razi	15 September 1995	16 May 1996
27			Ram Lal Rahi
28			Meijinlung Kamson
29			Mohammed Taslimuddin	1 June 1996	9 June 1996		Janata Dal	Deve Gowda		H. D. Deve Gowda
30			Maqbool Dar	10 July 1996	21 April 1997
				1 May 1997	19 March 1998			Gujral		Inder Kumar Gujral
31			Ram Naik	5 May 1999	13 October 1999		Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee II		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
32			I. D. Swami	13 October 1999	22 May 2004			Vajpayee III
33			C. Vidyasagar Rao	13 October 1999	29 January 2003
34			Harin Pathak	29 January 2003	22 May 2004
35			Chinmayanand Swami	24 May 2003	22 May 2004
36			Manikrao Hodlya Gavit	23 May 2004	6 April 2007		Indian National Congress	Manmohan I		Manmohan Singh
37			Shriprakash Jaiswal	23 May 2004	22 May 2009
38			S. Regupathy	23 May 2004	15 May 2007		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
38			V. Radhika Selvi	18 May 2007	22 May 2009
39			Shakeel Ahmad	6 April 2008	22 May 2009		Indian National Congress
40			Mullappally Ramachandran	28 May 2009	26 May 2014			Manmohan II
41			Ajay Maken	28 May 2009	19 January 2011
42			Gurudas Kamat	19 January 2011	12 July 2011
43			Jitendra Singh	12 July 2011	28 October 2012
44			R. P. N. Singh	28 October 2012	26 May 2014
45			Kiren Rijiju	26 May 2014	30 May 2019		Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
46			Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary	9 November 2014	5 July 2016
47			Hansraj Gangaram Ahir	5 July 2016	30 May 2019
48			G. Kishan Reddy	31 May 2019	7 July 2021			Modi II
49			Nityanand Rai	31 May 2019	9 June 2024
50			Ajay Mishra Teni	7 July 2021	9 June 2024
51			Nisith Pramanik
(49)			Nityanand Rai	10 June 2024	Incumbent			Modi III
52			Bandi Sanjay Kumar

Deputy Ministers

No.	Portrait		Minister	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
1			B. N. Datar	12 August 1952	14 February 1956		Indian National Congress	Nehru II		Jawaharlal Nehru
2			Violet Alva	23 April 1957	10 April 1962		Indian National Congress	Nehru III
3			Maragatham Chandrasekar	8 May 1962	27 May 1964		Indian National Congress	Nehru IV
4			Lalit Narayan Mishra	26 February 1964	27 May 1964
(3)			Maragatham Chandrasekar	27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I		Gulzarilal Nanda
(4)			Lalit Narayan Mishra	27 May 1964	9 June 1964
				9 June 1964	11 January 1966			Shastri		Lal Bahadur Shastri
				11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II		Gulzarilal Nanda
5			Purnendu Sekhar Naskar	24 January 1966	13 March 1967			Indira I		Indira Gandhi
6			Vidya Charan Shukla	14 February 1966	13 March 1967
7			K. S. Ramaswamy	18 March 1967	18 March 1971			Indira II
8			Fakruddinsab Hussensab Mohsin	2 May 1971	24 March 1977		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III		Indira Gandhi
9			Ram Lal Rahi	21 June 1991	15 September 1995		Indian National Congress (I)	Rao		P. V. Narasimha Rao

External links

• Home Ministry, Govt. of India
• Amit Shah take charge of Home Ministry of India 2019