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Smriti Irani does it for the BJP

Mumbai - Fiery minister clobbers critics on JNU, Rohit Vemula issues

A day after her fiery,50-minute-long speech in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, Smriti Irani continued to draw bouquets and brickbats from her fans and opponents respectively on social media.
The human resource development minister, a former small screen
actress, in a stellar performance came out all guns blazing, taking on the combined opposition on the issue of the suicide of a student of Hyderabad university, Rohit Vemula, and the controversies relating to the agitation by some students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. "Do hear this speech by @smritiirani. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?," tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hours after her speech, one of the most forceful in parliament in recent months.
While the minister took on various opposition leaders, her primary target was Rahul Gandhi, the Congress vice president, who predictably chose to leave parliament instead of sitting through the discussion.
Rahul, who had visited Hyderabad University twice after Rohit's suicide, and was also backing the JNU students, strangely decided to do the disappearing act when Smriti rose to take on the combined opposition.
"Rohith Vemula's body was used as a political tool," thundered Smriti. "Rahul Gandhi saw a political opportunity in Rohith Vemula's death. Over 600 students died during Telangana movement. Did Rahul Gandhi go once? No! In this the Congress vice-president saw a political opportunity."
Smriti Irani had fought against Rahul in his Amethi parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh. And though she lost the elections, she has been visiting Amethi frequently, trying to nurture the constituency for future battles.
Rahul and many others in the Congress have also been targeting her, accusing her of 'saffronising' higher education by allegedly appointing RSS sympathisers as vice-chancellors.
"I am sure Rahul doesn't know that even today that among the chancellors of central universities, there are 20 VCs who were appointed by the Congress, 16 VCs were again appointed by the Congress. I challenge any of these Congress-appointed VCs to come and say with evidence that I have saffronised them, I will quit politics," said Smriti.Referring to the JNU controversy, the minister said that the order to suspend about half-a-dozen students, including Kanhaiya Kumar, Syed Umer Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, was taken by the university, not the government.
Throughout the nearly hour-long speech, Smriti hectored the opposition, mocked at its missing leaders, flailed her arms, pointed her fingers accusingly, and even had tears in her eyes. Kolkata based Telegraph described her as 'Aunty National' on its front page. 'Mother India, at your service and ready for the supreme sacrifice, here comes Aunty National,' the headline said.But the paper was slammed on social media. "When a man makes a passionate speech, he becomes a hero," tweeted author Chetan Bhagat.
"A woman does it, she gets sexist headlines. Way to go Telegraph." BJP MP and actor Paresh Rawal described it as "disgracing journalism." Though she's known as an articulate speaker - well-versed in both Hindi and English - Smriti Irani did not have the opportunity to make any major speeches in parliament since the BJP government was voted to power. Many saw her as a "haughty" minister and some had even written off her chances of rising in the party hierarchy.
nithin@khaleejtimes.com