Dear Smriti Irani, stonewalling Arnab Goswami is not a good defence

Union Minister for Human Resources Development Smriti Irani had a simple explanation for why there are so many reports against her in the media; she makes for a good news copy.

The minister who appeared in her first interview after making the cover of the Outlook magazine was at her argumentative best and reiterated multiple times that she wouldn’t slip into victim mode. However, she said she does believe that she’s being targeted because people think she’s a ‘chit of a girl’ and hasn’t really earned her position.

“I might be witnessing the ‘chit of a girl’ syndrome…The attack doesn’t make sense to me,” Irani said, during the course of the interview with Arnab Goswami.

She claimed that many of the controversies she had been dragged into didn’t deserve to make headlines. “I did ask a journalist ‘Why is this happening?’. He said that ‘your problem is that you keep your head high’,” Irani said.

Saying that she was a ’tough nut to crack’, Irani said,“Irrespective of the jibes and attacks I will finish the job to the best of my ability.”

The minister refuted the allegations that she had raised the controversy over a CCTV camera directed at the changing room of a Fabindia store in Goa after being left out of the BJP’s national executive.

“I cannot wait for the convenience to report a crime,” she said, adding later, “No woman would want to be violated to make national headlines.”

The minister also denied that her party had abandoned her at any point or that she stood isolated.

“On every step of the way my party, my seniors have been with me… My party stood up, party leaders across party lines stood up for me,” Irani said, when asked about the controversy over a comment made by Sharad Yadav in the Rajya Sabha. Yadav during the course of a debate had told her “We know what you are.” However, he later retracted his statement.

“I am no abla naari. I can’t go to the media to tell them how my party defended me,” Irani said.

Despite reports suggesting that many bureaucrats have left her ministry due to their inability to work with her, Irani denied it and said that most of them who had moved out had done so voluntarily or because they had been directed to.

“Hundreds of bureaucrats change ministries…I just make for a good copy,” she said.

She denied she had ever been high handed and in her defence cited the fact that her behaviour had been witnessed by activists across the country.

“If there was any problem with my behaviour why hasn’t it come up till now?” she said. But she did have some explanation for why some people may not like her.

“Possibly that is what is most annoying about me…that I am completely forthright,” Irani said.

The minister rebuffed all suggestions that RSS-affiliated individuals have been appointed to head various educational institutes only during her tenure, pointing out that they had worked under Congress ministers and governments more than once in the past. She also argued that she wasn’t on the selection panels of the institutions that picked the individuals to head them.

“I do not ask people their ideological leanings, I just look at their academic credentials…I have not asked a single person their ideological leanings. If I start judging academic personalities on the basis of their political leanings then we will have a challenge,” she said.

Irani said her responsibility was to ensure her ministry functioned within certain rules and she would remain distant from the functioning of educational institutes. She also said that she didn’t see anything wrong with hiring someone with any political opinion or ideology as long as they met the required qualifications.

“You’re telling me that if you’re from the BJP or RSS you have no right to a academic job or an opinion,” she countered at one point.

The minister also denied that the ministry had been influenced by people like Dinanath Batra, but said that she had no power to ensure that state government’s didn’t implement his suggestions in textbooks.

“Are you telling me that a state doesn’t have a say in educational policy? He (Dinanath Batra) has no say in my ministry,” Irani said. But if there’s one thing that was consistent about Irani throughout the interview it was her ability to stonewall almost every question thrown at her and try to turn every question into a question to Arnab. There were few direct answers, a lot of weaving and dodging, and citing of achievements of the ministry so far.

So when Goswami asked,“Where’s the conviction?” to a question. She replied, “That’s what I am asking you.”

Other replies included: “You have tried to provoke me on many occasions but haven’t succeeded Arnab.”

“Everyone in the country is free to meet anyone they want, as long as its not in my ministry.”

“I may not follow you on Twitter but I do follow Newshour.”

“Am I to be held guilty in your court of law?”

It wasn’t entirely surprising that at one point, Goswami, who is more restrained these interviews, said,“For God’s sake, answer the question.”

All in all, Irani did a pretty good job of defending herself against the various allegations that have been levelled against her recently with the interview with even Goswami wondering aloud if he was talking to a lawyer. But whether it will be enough to silence her critics still remains doubtful.