Give up Amethi, let someone else take care of it: How Smriti Irani tore Rahul Gandhi-led 'development' bit-by-bit

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has failed his parliamentary constituency and should give it up, says Union Minister Smriti Irani who has rarely missed a chance to duel with the Opposition leader since she challenged him on his Amethi seat in 2014. The BJP leader took digs at Rahul and his family on the "lack of development" in their pocket boroughs, as she spoke at the first edition of Mail Today's Femail Summit on Friday, her first appearance at a public event since taking on the information and broadcasting portfolio.

"From fighting Amethi to making sure that that Congress loses in its constituency at the Vidhan Sabha elections, you are bound to be butchered in public. When I first went into Amethi, Congress was in power in the centre and had an ally in the state," she said.

"One of my life-changing experiences took place in Amethi where I saw an old lady picking up the fodder of animals from the road. I thought she did not want to waste it. I asked her if she was picking it up from the road to feed it to the cows. She told me that she would make dal from it. For six decades you are looking after a 'so-called' constituency and the women there are picking up grains off the muddy cracked road."

Irani lost the 2014 poll fight in Amethi, but made the Congress sweat for the win. Rahul won with a 46 per cent vote share, down from 71 per cent in the 2009 election. "I feel that better judgment prevails, if you say that I cannot do this but let someone else do it because you are not here to serve your interest," she said. "After seeing the woman I thought why cannot he just give it up if he cannot do it and let somebody else do it within your organisation."

The minister also mentioned the work she had done in Amethi. "There is a factory shut for three decades in Amethi, I am trying to get it open. We are also trying to save a village that is prone to extremely bad flooding. It is now after Yogi Adityanath became chief minister that for the first time we could arrange money for it," she said.

SMRITI SPEAKS HER MIND

"In 2012, as an MP, he (Yogi) brought up the problem of encephalitis in Parliament many a time. Why did not the Akhilesh Yadav government do anything about it despite being in power for ten years?" she added, in a statement that comes on the heels of dozens of children suffering from the disease dying at a hospital in the UP CM's constituency amid allegations of negligence and corruption at the institute. Talking about her career in politics and flak she drew during her stint as human resource development minister, Irani said one cannot deny opponents opportunities at mud-slinging.

"It is very difficult to get into a challenging position and everybody wants to make sure that you do not succeed," she said. "And if you have a woman walking into that kind of situation, I will tell people that you be careful of how deal with such a woman because she knows that I am walking into a situation which is more challenging than most and willing to pay the price of being totally butchered, but still make sure that the voice is heard."

Speaking on the issue of censorship and regulation of content in the media and entertainment industry, she said each person has his or her own taste and being a minister she would not impose her preferences on others.

"My taste would differ from the others in the room," she said. "That does not mean, just because I get to be a minister, you get to see what I want you to see. That cannot happen." The women of new India know what they want to do, and how they want to contribute, Irani said. "They designate the pathway on their own."

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