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Why Smriti Irani is the most controversial minister of Modi government

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Ashok Upadhyay
Ashok UpadhyayApr 06, 2015 | 13:43

Why Smriti Irani is the most controversial minister of Modi government

On March 25, the Narendra Modi government completed ten months in office. If you assess his ministers in this period on the basis of who got how much space in all kinds of traditional media and created maximum buzz on social media, Smriti Irani, the minister of human resource development, stands way ahead of her counterparts. She has constantly hit the headlines, most of which have been controversial - some of them created by her own actions while others by her statements. Several other external factors too have played their role in keeping her in news. However, rarely has she been in news for her positive actions.

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On April 2, Smriti Irani made it to the headlines, yet again. She was trying on clothes at an outlet of Fabindia in Goa, when she allegedly spotted a camera positioned to record footage from inside the trial room. At 38, the minister became the youngest face in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet. Her inclusion has surprised many and also caused resentment. She lost to Rahul Gandhi in Amethi and yet got an important ministry like HRD. This has made her critics work overtime in digging out skeletons from her past.

Here is a list some of the good, bad and ugly headlines that kept Smriti Irani in the news:

1. The graduation degree: The first big controversy surrounding Irani was over her qualification. The minister herself provided conflicting affidavits of her educational qualification. While in 2004, she submitted that she had obtained a graduate degree in arts (BA, in 1996) from Delhi University (DU) (through the School of Correspondence), in another affidavit filed before the 2014 elections, she submitted that she had completed part of a graduate degree in Commerce (Part I of BCom in 1994) from Delhi University. In addition, a leak from the School of Correspondence, as reported by newspapers, claims that Irani had enrolled for the course in 2013, but never took her examination.

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In August, 2014, the controversy took a new turn with her asserting that she also had a degree from the prestigious Yale University in the United States. Irani did not explain what the Yale degree was - it turned out that she was part of a group of Indian members of Parliament (MPs) that underwent a six-day crash course on leadership at the university.

2. Appointment of RSS men in key posts: The appointment of people from the Sangh background for key posts in the ministry has made news on frequent intervals. Some of these were:

a) Vishram Ramchandra Jamdar as the head of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur.

b) Professor Inder Mohan Kapahy as a member of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

c) Baldev Sharma, former editor of RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya, as chairman of National Book Trust.

d) Professor Y Sudershan Rao as the chairperson of the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR).

e) Despite "adjusting people from the Sangh Parivar", one constant piece of news about her ministry is that "RSS not happy with her functioning".

3. Celebrating Teacher's Day as "Guru Utsav": The centre's move to celebrate Teacher's Day as "Guru Utsav" and the planned interaction of Narendra Modi with school children stirred up the hornet's nest. The opposition slammed the government over the issue, but Irani called the criticism as "regrettable" and said that the students' participation in the interaction is "voluntary".

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4. Rolling back Delhi University's infamous FYUP: In 2013, Delhi University started the much-debated four-year under-graduate programme and only a year later, rolled it back after a tussle with the UGC.

Later there were reports that the HRD minister had forwarded paperwork to President Pranab Mukherjee's office questioning DU vice chancellor (VC) Dinesh Singh's conduct and requesting his ouster.

This was followed by reports of a 1,000-page show cause notice being issued to Dinesh Singh and a 15-page response by the VC.

5. German dropped as an optional third language: The HRD asked Kendriya Vidyalayas or central schools to discontinue offering German as the third language option. The matter went to the Supreme Court and was also raised with the prime minister by German Chancellor at the G20 summit.

6. Shuddh vegetarian at IIT Delhi: The CPM leader Sitaram Yechury had expressed concern over reports that non-vegetarian food had been taken off the menu of IIT-Delhi canteen and sought the HRD minister's intervention in the matter. Irani rejected allegations that she was promoting vegetarian food in IITs, contending that such meals had been stopped during UPA's rule.

7. Resignation of IIT-Delhi director: Three months after he resigned, IIT-Delhi Director Raghunath K Shevgaonkar is yet to be relieved by the HRD. Some reports claimed that he had quit amid pressure from the HRD ministry to release nearly Rs 70 lakh to former IIT-Delhi faculty Subramanian Swamy, who is now a BJP functionary, as salary dues for the period between 1972 and 1991.

8. Anil Kakodkar vs Smriti Irani: News emerged that Anil Kakodkar had resigned as the chairman of the board of governors of IIT-Bombay over differences with the HRD Ministry regarding the selection of IIT directors. The next day, the ministry of HRD claimed that Kakodkar had withdrawn his resignation. A fortnight later, he broke his silence, saying IITs "should be left alone". He also described the government's new selection process as "very casual".

9. Astrologer row: Smriti Irani and her husband Zubin went to an astrologer called Pandit Nathulal Vyas, who told her that she is destined to become the president of India some day. With this meeting, Irani, who has often been accused of pandering to right-wing groups, has given more fodder to her detractors.

10. HRD's babus in quit mode: In the five-year term of UPA II, only two senior HRD officials chose to quit. But under the newly-formed NDA, the HRD ministry saw five senior joint secretary-level officers moving out. This gave it the dubious distinction of being the most attrition prone ministry in the BJP-led government.

11. Fate of the UGC: A committee headed by Dr Hari Gautam has submitted its report to secretary (higher education) that suggests the UGC has failed to fulfil its responsibilities and recommended that "if possible, it should be scrapped". Though the HRD rejected the report, it said that their office is yet to examine it.

12. Vajpayee's birthday as "Good Governance Day": Reports came that a circular was issued to central schools saying that December 25 would be observed as "Good Governance Day" to mark the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the birth anniversary of Madan Mohan Malaviya. It asked the schools to "ensure active participation of your students" in a declamation contest, quiz contest, film screening, and "innovative programmes". Later on, Smriti Irani rubbished these reports and said that only an online essay competition was planned for Christmas Day and that there was no intention to ask children to come to school.

13. No Bedi, all Modi for Smriti in the Delhi election campaign: While campaigning during the Delhi Assembly election, Smriti Irani made no mention of Kiran Bedi, BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Delhi, and spoke at length about Modi's "rags-to-riches" story.

14. AMU vice chancellor vs Smriti Irani: The BJP leaders in UP planned to celebrate the birth anniversary of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh on December 1 at Aligarh Muslim University. This led AMU vice chancellor (VC) lieutenant general (retired) Zameer Uddin Shah to write to Smriti Irani, warning her about the possible ramifications of the event. Later, the plan was dropped by the BJP leaders.

Another controversy was generated with AMU vice chancellor's remarks that there would be "four-times more boys" in the library if girls were allowed in. Smriti Irani sought an explanation from the VC and said that his remarks amounted to an "insult to daughters".

15. Exit from BJP executive: When the BJP announced that Amit Shah would be the next party chief, Smriti Irani's name was absent from the list of members in the party's national executive. With most Union ministers finding a place, the exclusion of Irani came as a surprise and there were indications that the RSS was not happy with the HRD minister's performance.

16. Sharad Yadav vs Smriti Irani: Sharad Yadav faced an all round attack in the Parliament and outside for his comment on "saanvli" (dark-complexioned) women. Smriti Irani asked him not to bring in such issues to the floor of the House and Yadav hit back at the HRD minister in the Rajya Sabha, saying "I know what you are". He even refused to apologise, but later on regretted making such remarks.

17. Peeping cam in Fabindia: While trying on clothes at an outlet of Fabindia in Goa, a vigilant Smriti Irani spotted a hidden camera positioned to record inside the small trial room and raised an alarm. Following this, the Goa police registered a case against the staff for voyeurism.

Interestingly, this controversy broke on the day BJP's National Executive was meeting in Bangalore. Meenakshi Lekhi, a Lok Sabha MP from the party, wondered if Irani "smelt a rat to obfuscate" the coverage of the national executive meeting by spotting a hidden camera in the trial room of a garment store in Candolim.

If the title of the most controversial minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet had to be given to anyone, Smriti Irani would beat others to receive it.

She has hogged the most limelight from the beginning until now and people have started wondering whether the young minister follows controversies or the controversies follow her.

Last updated: February 26, 2016 | 19:02
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