Cool down, BJP cautions HRD minister Smriti Irani

New Delhi: Union human resources development minister Smriti Irani’s chest-thumping, high-pitched histrionics, rolling of her eyes and pointing of fingers at members during her dramatic speech in the Lok Sabha on Thursday did not go down well with the saffron high command.

More trouble brewed for the HRD minister as a combined Opposition on Saturday decided to move a privilege notice against her on the issue of Rohith Vemula, the dalit scholar who committed suicide at Hyderabad Central University.

She was not merely cautioned and asked to refrain from getting into “melodramatic mode” but suave and articulate finance minister Arun Jaitley was pressed to intervene the following day in the Rajya Sabha to bring a semblance of balance to the JNU debate, sources revealed.

That she was cautioned became somewhat evident when during her comparatively controlled reply in the Rajya Sabha she said, “I have been cautioned, and rightly so...”

It was also learnt that BJP OBC ministers, legislators and functionaries “strongly disapproved” of her raising the “Mahishasura martyrdom” and “goddess Durga” issue.

Read verified paper, said Smriti Irani
Some of the OBC leaders reportedly conveyed to the party high command that there were communities in which Mahishasura was “not considered evil”.

The HRD minister could be pushed further into a tight corner on the Goddess Durga issue.

On Friday the HRD minister contended in the Rajya Sabha that she had read out from a “verified” document that had been attested by the JNU registrar. The same day the student organiser of the 2014 event in JNU, Anil Kumar, had said that the controversial “pamphlet that Smriti Irani was reading in Parliament on Wednesday was not written by him or any of his mates”.

He then went on to claim that “the pamphlet she is seen holding in the speech is a colourful one which is never used in any JNU protest due to high printing costs. It is a fake document and the minister is lying”.

Anil Kumar was a Ph.D student at the varsity when the event took place in 2014. Moreover, Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s mother accusing the HRD minister of lying in Parliament and the duty doctor at Hyderabad Central University refuting her claims that “no doctor attended Rohith’s body for several hours” have also left the Modi government red-faced, a section of functionaries observed.

The BJP felt that her rhetoric, particularly offering her head if the BSP supremo rejected her explanation on Rohith Vemula’s suicide, has put the party in an "embarrassing" position.