HRD Minister Smriti Irani has been in the eye of the storm after the suicide of Hyderabad University scholar Rohith Vemula and the sedition charges against five Jawaharlal Nehru University students. Although she has made some emphatic speeches in the Lok Sabha, she has faced flak for factual inconsistencies. On the occasion of her birthday, here are some statements by the minister which are worth revisiting.
This article was first published in February 2016.
Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani gave a fiery speech in Lok Sabha on Wednesday while defending herself regarding the Hyderabad University and Jawaharlal Nehru University controversies.
Irani lashed out at the Congress and even got a tad emotional during her speech. Evidently, prepared for a stormy session, Irani came with stack of papers proving that she had done her homework on the two issues. Here’s a list of statements she made in Lok Sabha.
- I am being accused of discrimination. Let me tell you something, I have always spoken about him as a student, not a Dalit student.
- Rohith’s body was used as a political tool. When his body was found, a doctor was not allowed to visit him till 6:30 next morning.
- Have you ever seen Rahul Gandhi go to one spot twice? No, he saw a political opportunity, so he went to JNU.
- The people in the Executive Committee who suspended Vemula were not appointed by NDA but by UPA, and a Dalit warden was co-opted into the committee.
- I have said it time and again that ‘shiksha ko ranbhoomi mat banao’, don’t make education a battleground.
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.Smriti Irani quotes Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero
- If I had mentioned Chanakya, I would be accused of being ‘saffron’, hence I quoted a Roman.
- You think you can punish me by cornering me? You want to punish me for Amethi? That will not happen. I will not apologise for doing my duty. If you have the courage, you should listen to my answer today.
- Umar Khaled misled the JNU administration. He said in the application form that he was organising a poetry reading session, but held a political event.
- Rahul Gandhi once said all Vice Chancellors are members of the RSS. If he can get one V-C to say that they tried to ‘saffronise’ the colleges in India, I will quit politics.
Irani Impresses Almost Everyone
Irani’s speech comes after Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia gave a passionate speech about how Rohith Vemula was wronged.
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