The World - News from June 26, 1988

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi reshuffled his Cabinet, saying he will no longer serve as his own foreign minister because he wants to devote more time to politics. The Cabinet changes, Gandhi’s 13th since he took office in 1984, followed setbacks for his Congress-I party in recent parliamentary elections. Gandhi’s main political rival, former Defense Minister Viswanath Pratep Singh, who broke with Gandhi last year over the government’s slowness in investigating allegations of bribery in foreign arms deals, was elected to a seat from the Allahabad district. Gandhi assigned the post of foreign minister to P.V. Narasimha Rao, who had served as minister of human resource development in the previous Cabinet.