Smriti Irani portfolio changed to divert attention: Kanhaiya Kumar

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president, Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been severely critical of the Union human resource and development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani ever since the sedition row broke out, on Wednesday claimed that she has been shunted out of the HRD Ministry to divert public attention from the Rohith Vemula issue.

The 29-year-old PhD research scholar, who is out on bail in the sedition case, has been leading a movement demanding justice for Rohith Vemula, a Hyderabad university scholar, who was found hanging in his room earlier this year after he, along with five others, were suspended from the central university.

“There has been an outrage in the Dalit community and among students against Mrs. Irani after Rohith Vemula was forced to commit suicide. The move to send her to the textile ministry has been made only to divert public attention from the Vemula issue,” said Kanhaiya.

“If you remove a minister from one ministry and send her to another one, it is not a punishment. It is just an arrangement which has been made keeping in view of the upcoming elections,” he added.

Smriti Irani on Tuesday was shifted from the key HRD ministry to a less significant textiles portfolio and was replaced by the newly elevated cabinet minister Prakash Javadekar after an expansion of the Union council of ministers and reshuffle.

The shifting of Irani, whose two-year tenure in the human resources development ministry was marked by several controversies, including the ones over Dalit scholar Vemula’s suicide and the JNU row, has triggered speculation whether it was a tactical move to give a less important portfolio or to be left free to be the face of the BJP campaign in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls due in 2017.