Smriti Irani, the woman who has been on the receiving end of sexist abuse for years even from the so-called feminists

As the country witnesses the #MeToo movement where women in large numbers are coming out and narrating incidents of sexual harassment which they have faced, it is perhaps the best time to mention the name of the woman who has been the biggest victim of digital bullying, crass commentary, online abuse and sexist remark despite being a towering achiever.

She is none other than the BJP MP Smriti Irani. At a time when there is a flood of naming and shaming perpetrators on social media as a result of which few well known men have already lost their jobs, powerful men/women who abused Smriti Irani are still going about their business comfortably. Those who abused her are still a part of the elitist cabal. In fact, some of the abusers are hailed as role models by the cabal. As a result of #MeToo movement a number of men have even apologized for their predatory behavior against their female colleagues and other women but no one till date has apologized to Smriti Irani for making derogatory remarks against her.

Expected to criticize the ones they break bread with, the response of the cabal and self-declared feminists has been both hypocritical and evasive. The #metoo movement exposed the hypocritical nature of the cabal. The cabal only pays lip service to the causes and concerns of women.

Smriti Irani has been subjected to repeated character assassination only because she achieved success in her life purely due to merit and an uncompromising attitude.

Feminists remained completely mum when in an article, objectionably titled ‘Dressing down Smriti Irani’, columnist Ms Namrata Zakaria launched a visceral attack on the Textile Minister. Zakaria tried to demolish the credibility of Smriti Irani by poking fun at her for being assigned the textile portfolio. Her body and attire also came under scrutiny which amounts to nothing less than fat-shaming and is categorised digital bullying. In her article, Zakaria had used utterly disgraceful and shameful line like – ‘she sucks up to her boss’.  In order to make her point, she quoted disgraced officer Sanjiv Bhatt who has a history of tweeting derogatory tweets against women. Her article was an abominable example of misogyny and hatred against a successful self-made woman. Strangely it came from another woman!

This was not the first time that Smriti Irani was attacked in such a disgusting manner.  She has been attacked viciously ever since she was fielded by the BJP in 2014 to take on Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. A systematic smear campaign has been run against her by the Congress Party and its ecosystem. The cabal targeted her for challenging Nehru-Gandhi fiefdom.

When she was endowed with the responsibility of HRD ministry, the cabal questioned her educational credentials, her modeling and acting career and her overall eligibility for the role. The sexist and disgusting narrative of ‘favors’ from PM Modi was also used to undermine her credibility.

Next came the Fabindia episode in which a lady’s modesty was violated by hidden cameras in a trial room leaving her quite rightfully outraged. The media, instead of expressing sympathy with the victim, questioned her motives. Somebody called her a ‘fat cow’, somebody else an ‘overfed aunty.’ Some journalists were overtly critical. Surprisingly, most of them were females themselves. The left leaning Indian media which is usually ready with dozens of newsprint over such incidents, liberally laced with words like feminism, chauvinism, patriarchy and violation were unusually mum. After all they firmly believe that feminism, equality, justice and liberty are exclusive privileges of the political left. Rajdeep Sardesai, the doyen of news traders, went on to insinuate Smriti Irani herself for the incident in his interview.

The NSUI attacked Smriti Irani’s home while she was away at work. Congress leader Indrani Mishra asked her whether she knows the difference between B.Ed and Bed on Twitter.

The Congress sympathizer and a relative of Robert Vadra, Tehnseen Poonawalla had also made an apparently sexist remark against Smriti Irani when she was transferred from HRD ministry to the Textiles ministry.

https://twitter.com/tehseenp/status/750643507531018240

Tehnsen Poonawalla went on to ridicule Smriti Irani countless times.

The Congress Youth President had also made vulgar remarks against Smriti Irani.

An Aaj Tak journalist, Ashok Singhal, shamelessly asked Smriti Irani what Modi saw in her that she’s been made a Cabinet Minister. He had said, “Narendra Modi ne sabse kam umar ki mantri banaya apko-HRD jaise bada portfolio diya. Aur degree ka bhi vivaad hai- aap graduate ya under-graduate hai…Lekin kya khubi lagi aap mein? Kya vajay thi?”

There’s nothing more derogatory than to denigrate a woman’s character on national television that too based on misplaced theories. 

During the course of a live debate on a news channel in 2012, Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam had crossed all limits of common courtesy and decency when he said to Smriti Irani, “You used to charge money to perform dance shows on television, and now you have become an election analyst.”

Smriti Irani filed defamation case against Sanjay Nirupam. When Smriti Irani appeared before the Delhi’s Patiala House Court along with the accused Congress leader, she claimed that that the accused had made one more derogatory remark against her in the court when he said, “Iss aurat ko Supreme Court jaane ka shauk hai (this lady is fond of going to the Supreme Court).”

Congress Assam leader Nolamoni Deka referred Smriti Irani as “second wife of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

Last month, the Congress ecosystem launched attacks on Smriti Irani in the form of memes. A bunch of Twitter users swearing by the party and openly proclaiming to be a part of the Congress have circulated memes based on a false statement. According to the meme, the union minister has allegedly made a statement claiming that she will expose every Congressman threadbare. However, the words they have used to portray this have been given a perverted undertone, by making it sound as if she meant that she will strip them naked. The Congress handles have added a line after this statement, claiming that after hearing this, there has been a spike in the number of people who want to join the Congress party.

https://twitter.com/lankapati0ravan/status/1037031381061324801

https://twitter.com/anchan_shaila/status/1036983905763479552

https://twitter.com/I_Support_INC/status/1036966787298914305

https://twitter.com/AliSohrab007/status/1036631001869545473

Smriti Irani, a self-made woman who deserves respect has been ridiculed and abused time and again. The cabal carried subjected her to incessant character assassination. It shows the mentality of the cabal. They didn;t just make sexist and crass comments against her but they also gave her endless mental and emotional torture for which there was no visible support from the pseudo-feminist/liberal section of the society.

As the #Metoo campaign has empowered women to come out to tell the stories of harassment and victim shaming, let us not forget the first person who fought the battle with courage and conviction when none of the ‘feminsts’ came to support her and even aided and abetted the vicious trolling and sexist slurs. Smriti Irani, more power to you!