Smriti Irani was an eyesore for the elitists of India. The elitists of India who judge people and judge a lot, their only judgment criteria being the subject’s academic qualifications. The same bunch of elitists were equally unhappy when a chai-wallah from Gujarat was projected as the Prime Minister candidate by the ‘Bhartiya Janata Party’. Now of course they have been stunned into silence ever since the world started hailing him as a statesman. Elitists were happy under an overqualified underachiever like Dr. Manmohan Singh. And it’s all justified. Elitists are well educated, generally from a Tier-I Indian College or from Ivy League Varsities. A graduate from an elite university deserves a well-qualified leader. Serial-Wallis and chai-wallahs are technically unfit to rule them.
Coming back to Smriti Irani. Smriti Irani has perfected the art of hitting back at detractors. She is not the one to take it lying down. While Modi detractors get his calculated silence in return, the one on the receiving end of Smriti Irani’s outburst don’t just receive humiliation but an entire public movement against them. Not very long back, Smriti Irani showed Rashid Alvi his place. Or her interview with Barkha Dutt where the latter looked extremely uncomfortable with her pointed jibes and calculated answers. Or her aggressive campaigning against Rahul Gandhi when she almost defeated Congress’s crown prince. She was the epitome of grace when Priyanka Gandhi was taking digs at her but she aggressively threw Priyanka’s secretary out of the polling booth when she was found meddling with the processes. And almost half a decade back, she rendered the intellectual iconic Hindi Journalist Rahul Kanwal completely paralyzed on his own show.
What Smriti lacks in Vidya, she makes it up with Buddhi. Vidya is academic brilliance acquired through learning while Buddhi is knowledge gained from involvement and experience. The Vidwaans take a copy book approach to solving problems, The buddhimans are creative, they are not blinded or bounded by theories and thumb rules. They are risk takers. They push the nation forward. And do remember Gates, Jobs and Dell all were college dropouts.
Smriti Irani is finally out of the HRD Ministry and moved to textile ministry. While Textile ministry is an equally important portfolio and is one of the top job creators in the country, people have been hailing this rejig as a victory of their not-so-silent anti-Smriti protests over the years. Facebook and Twitter intellectuals are heaving a sigh of relief, now that Smriti Irani is out of HRD Ministry. And such is their hatred for her that they have christened her a “Silai-Bunai-Kadhai” waali (one who sews, weaves and embroiders), a role fit for a woman. Sad state of affairs in a country which worships Saraswati, as the goddess of wisdom.
So why do People love to hate Smriti Irani?
I hate treading the typical feminist path but one of the reasons is the patriarchal mindset so deeply embedded in the psyche of us Indians. We just can’t see a woman playing the man. And the credo of such misogynist lowlifes is resorting to character assassination. Look at the following incidents:
When the Fabindia fiasco happened and when a lady’s modesty was violated by hidden cameras in a trial room and when she was rightly outraged. The media instead of expressing sympathy with the victim questioned her motives. Somebody called her a fat cow, somebody else an overfed aunty.
Congress leader Indrani Mishra asked her whether she knows the difference between B.Ed and Bed on Twitter.
An Aaj Tak journalist Ashok shamelessly asked Smriti Irani what Modi saw in her that she’s been made a Cabinet Minister.
Sanjay Nirupam called her a ‘Thumka lagane waali’ (A woman who does pelvic thrusts!).
Telegraph called her Aunty National. Today Telegraph has published a cartoon with headlines “Spinderella”.
Notice none of these lowlifes criticized her on the basis of her work or performance as the HRD Minister. They simply resorted to character assassination. But Smriti Irani chooses to proceed ahead, unfettered. For she is a firebrand that India deserves. A confident, assertive, self-made woman who should have been a feminist icon, but will never be. She breaks so many of the ideas the feminists want us to accept.