Smriti Irani: An Avoidable Distraction For Modi

16th of May for people like me was like Diwali, Holi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja, all rolled in one. One of us, a Hindu conservative was going to adorn the highest office. After a brilliantly run campaign, Bhai Narendra Modi scored an unprecedented victory. The already high expectations broke though and reached another high. We then waited for the cabinet formation with tidbits of information coming out of the tight-lipped BJP officials. We were expecting a small cabinet with mergers and regrouping of portfolios – the kind that Modi had in Gujarat. The 336 seat majority in Loksabha does afford the incoming PM some freedom. What we got was a smaller than the Congress cabinet with the major portfolios going to people whom Advani would have chosen had he won. Admirers like us accepted it grudgingly in the name of political expediency. Why would a perpetual Modi baiter like Swaraj be rewarded with a “samman-janak” portfolio is beyond. However, most people have no problems with the cabinet. In fact if you look away from the major portfolios, the cabinet reflects Modi’s administrative genius (still cannot explain Maneka Gandhi and Kalraj Mishra). But when the high profile ministry of Human Resource Development was given to the younger version of Sushma Swaraj (without the education) one had to really wonder if this person was vetted at all. I just cannot fault Madhu Kishwar for demanding an explanation.

If you can award the Health Ministry to a doctor with a proven record of success then why wouldn’t you use the same logic in selecting a qualified person for the department of Education? After all our population is still very young which makes HRD an extremely important ministry.

I do not want to contribute to an already ugly pro and con debate over whether or not Smriti Irani’ is qualified to run this demanding ministry. It really does not matter which side of the debate you are on. If you know politicians then you also know that this decision is not going to change.

What bothers me is that fact that Irani was not vetted properly and now that choice has to be defended by the party. A party with 336 seats in Loksabha should be bulldozing through decisions. We got a glimpse of that on the first day of Modi’s day in office. Deft handling of the SAARC leaders especially the Pakistani PM, decree about not choosing family members as staff, SIT for black money, BJP young guns drawing “Lakshman Rekhas” for their offices, appointment of an ex Super Spy Ajit Doval (instead of an IAS babu) as the NSA director were some of the decisions made. This is what was expected from PM Modi. This is what he and his team ought to be spending their energy on instead of defending an appointment. This has given the opposition (as they are) an issue to scream about. Do you think that is someone like Arun Shourie were the HRD head, Ajay Maken would open his unsanitary trap? This appointment has given the leftist talking heads on TV to hold over Modi’s head. If she were in charge of tourism (another of the PM’s favorite projects) then there would not be any complains. Since the opposition and other Modi baiters have no other issue to talk about, they are not going to let go of this.

Correctly or incorrectly Smriti Irani has become a distraction PM Narendra Modi could do without. For a man who ran a perfect presidential style campaign (better than any American presidential candidate has run) and has made close to no mistakes in his entire political life, this misstep is confusing and confounding. As a admirer and a well wisher, I hope that this is the last mistake of its kind.