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Smriti Irani as textiles minister may be far more successful

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Ashok Upadhyay
Ashok UpadhyayAug 16, 2016 | 17:37

Smriti Irani as textiles minister may be far more successful

In the first week of August, textiles minister Smriti Irani was spotted at a Starbucks coffee shop in New Delhi's Connaught Place. Like any ordinary person, the minister was standing in a queue and waiting her turn to order.

Though Irani is entitled to Y-category security that is an 11-man cover at all times, no security detail was in evidence. The photo, shared by one Nimish Dubey on his Facebook profile, has not only got her fans raving about her but even her detractors have been pleasantly surprised. Though she has been one of the most trolled ministers of the Modi government, she was lauded this time around.

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Earlier, on August 1, Irani launched a social media campaign #ILoveHandloom. She wore a handloom sari, got a picture taken, tweeted it, tagging five people/organisations. People lauded it too.

According to Irani's office, the campaign made over 51 lakh impressions with over 58,000 interactions on Facebook in less than 24 hours. On Twitter, it started trending and made around 2.17 crore impressions in just days.

So there have been two instances of a likeable Irani... first how as a minister she is moving around like a common citizen and second, how an initiative by her as a minister got an overwhelming response.

But this Irani, as India's textile minister, is quite unlike the fiery, feisty human resources minister of only a month ago. So has the fire burnt out or is she going in for an image makeover? If that is the case, the question is, will she succeed?

smriti-irani-textile_081616052939.jpg
Textiles minister Smriti Irani shared this image on Twitter for her #ILoveHandloom campaign. 

The day after Irani was removed from the human resources development ministry and given the charge of the textile ministry, eminent historian Ramchandra Guha said she was "a deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance". Guha offered instances of how Irani was high-handed with senior professors. He said, "At one meeting, an IIT director asked her a question to which she said, 'Do you think you are a TV anchor to ask me such questions?'"

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Irani's two-year tenure as HRD minister was replete with controversies, hostile exchanges with opponents, large anti-government movements on campuses, and allegations that she was being used by the RSS to saffronise the syllabus.

Her tenure as HRD minister started with controversy over her degrees and hardly a week passed when she was not in one controversy or other. The heat of her confrontational, arrogant and dictatorial style was felt by everyone who worked in her proximity.

Bureaucrats of the HRD ministry either left the department or were eager to leave. Hardly anyone from outside were keen to come in. Academicians, vice-chancellors, directors of IITs and IIMs were said to be reluctant to deal with her.

In her interviews to journalists she was contemptuous and egoistical. The way she spoke to senior politicians in Parliament raised many an eyebrow. Irani not only picked fights on social media on frivolous and silly issues but on many occasions the fights became personal.

Talking about the ordeal Aaj Tak's senior journalist Ashok Singhal went through during a television show with her, The Washington Post wrote, "When a television journalist asked Smriti Irani what qualities Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw in her to give her the education portfolio, she chose not to answer. Instead, she turned to the studio audience and repeated his question. It was enough to enrage them... shouting "shame, shame", audience members jumped over chairs to reach the platform and nearly assaulted the journalist. Irani then got up and rescued him from the mob's fury." The Washington Post called her "the queen of controversies".

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As a TV soap star, in her role as Tulsi Virani in Ekta Kapoor's Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Irani won a lot of fans and appreciation. She became a household name across the country. Her image helped her in politics.

In just 11 years after joining politics she was given the important human resources ministry. After becoming a Cabinet minister, Indian television's favourite bahu failed to retain this image. Though there were some admirers of her new image, many came to hate her arrogance.

On July 5, 2016, around 10pm, the news of Irani's departure from the HRD ministry to the textile ministry was announced by TV channels. People didn't waste any time on social media and started celebrating. This became a worldwide trend on Twitter.

Social media platforms which jeered her on July 5, 2016 cheered her on August 1, making her #ILoveHandloom trend. There are news reports that the minister's aides are on the lookout for a good public relations person. While Irani's Twitter timeline as HRD minister was full of quarrels and silly fights, no such tweet can be attributed to her after she became the textile minister. Her tone and manner of speaking with journalists too has mellowed down.

So there is no doubt that Irani is trying to reinvent herself. While it is true that she used to be a versatile actress, playing different roles to perfection in reel life, real life of hard-nosed politics may be a different ball game altogether.

In reel life an act is decided by its script. In real life an act is driven by one's own volition. So if this change on Irani is coming of her own volition, she may still succeed in winning over those she antagonised. But if she thinks this is still the make-belief life of soap operas and she can put up an act to win audiences, she may have a harsher reality facing her in the not-too-distant future.

Last updated: August 16, 2016 | 17:37
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