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  India   ‘Arrogant’ Smriti Irani loses plum HRD portfolio

‘Arrogant’ Smriti Irani loses plum HRD portfolio

Published : Jul 6, 2016, 2:57 am IST
Updated : Jul 6, 2016, 2:57 am IST

Within a fortnight of her writing a Facebook page where she signed off as “Aunty National”, Union minister Smriti Irani lost her high-profile job as the head of the ministry of the human resources dev

Within a fortnight of her writing a Facebook page where she signed off as “Aunty National”, Union minister Smriti Irani lost her high-profile job as the head of the ministry of the human resources development to the new poster boy of the Narendra Modi Cabinet, Mr Prakash Javadekar.

In the Facebook page, she had apparently played the victim, saying she quit her highly successful acting career when she was at the peak to join politics unlike others.

She was also under severe criticism for her arrogance and her histrionics had repeatedly embarrassed the government and the party.

Her “vaulting ambition” and eagerness to jump into the race for the chief ministerial face of the BJP for the upcoming polls in Uttar Pradesh had also earned her enough enemies within the BJP and the RSS. “Her conduct in the public space by adopting a confrontational attitude with the media and political rivals on Twitter too did not go well the leadership of the party,” sources said.

Last month, she had a public spat with Bihar education minister Ashok Choudhary, who is a dalit. The provocation was that Mr Choudhary had prefixed “Dear” while addressing her on Twitter, which led to an ugly spat in which Bihar deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav too had jumped in, wondering “if a dalit addressing her with Dear offended the Union minister”.

“You grow up and become a TV star. But while you still struggle to make a mark you are advised that if you go to parties and mingle enough, you shall get work... But lo and behold, you do succeed. You bag all the awards that matter, TRPs soar through the roof and all the naysayers grudgingly accept that you have arrived (though they do take occasional potshots as their work profile demands). And then politics happens. Not when you are a fading star, not when you are unemployed but when you are at the peak of your success,” Ms Irani wrote in the Facebook page after the Twitter spat with Mr Choudhary.

She had also been engaged with public spats with journalists and political rivals on Twitter. Ms Irani has now been given the low-profile charge of the ministry of textiles.

She was at the receiving end of the campaign by Sahitya Akademi award winners after they began returning their awards.

Also, against the direction of the Prime Minister to assign responsibilities to the ministers of state, Ms Irani hardly gave any work to her deputies, sources added.

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi