Smriti Irani’s rousing, nearly 50-minute speech in the Lok Sabha on the Rohith Vemula and JNU row has already made waves. It may not have the erudite scholarly polish of Sugata Bose’s speech earlier in the day, but what it had in aplomb was the right measure of rhetoric, armed with facts, counter-factuals, politically inconvenient truths and personal jibes, all of which in unison gave Irani’s speech a potent edge - a benchmark that the often hapless BJP spokies in TV debates can watch and learn.
No wonder PM Modi tweeted his stamp of approval to the speech and shared it writing "Satyameva Jayate" i.e truth will always win. Home Minister Rajnath Singh was also effusive in his praise. If one looks threadbare at the specifics though, Irani hasn’t tread any fresh ground. On the Rohith Vemula issue, Irani justified her Ministry’s ‘interference’ by claiming that the HRD often communicates with political leaders irrespective of their political affiliation. Her pointing out that Congress leader Hanumantha Rao wrote a letter asking for intervention in HCU was definitely a strong point in the argument. Not that the matter was unknown, but so far BJP spokies hadn’t managed to convey it effectively
She tried to break the political omerta by naming several opposition leaders who had asked for help regarding admission and other favours. This was the strategy of a clearly cornered leader, to knock-out the opponents by a not so politically correct way. While her pointing out that a doctor was not called to revive Rohith or the aloofness of Telangana CM KCR will definitely provide talking points, she was silent on any ‘crime’ Vemula committed which forced ABVP to virtually hound him.
Not so discrete in the case of JNU though. She provided documents about how the organisers of the pro-Afzal event on campus misguided the JNU administration about the programme. Irani also quoted slogans with anti-India messages. The killer though was the poster regarding the 'Mahishasura Martyrdom' day. It describes goddess Durga as a sex worker. Irani with her oratorical flourish, challenged the Left and TMC to repeat the content of the poster on the streets of Kolkata.
Irani kept her most prominent blusters for Rahul Gandhi. She accused the opposition of targeting her for contesting from Amethi and called out the hypocrisy of Rahul not visiting Telangana when the entire state was burning during the separate state movement. Sensing nervousness in the Congress ranks over going full hog to support the JNU cause, Irani unleashed a full-fledged onslaught. Invoking Vajpayee’s generous description of Indira Gandhi as "Ma durga", she said that even the Iron Lady of India had lost power, but her son never went to support "anti-national" forces.
Irani also tried to answer Rahul’s ‘all VCs are RSS men’ jibe by giving figures about how many appointed by the Congress are still present. Irani challenged that if any of those VC’s say that she has indulged in saffronisation, she will quit politics. This was another high point of her emotional speech.
However, she remained silent on the allegations of growing interference of the HRD in elite institutions, a concern voiced by eminent scientists like Anil Kakodkar.
While Smriti vehemently rejected charges of peddling any saffronisation agenda, her third act in a way tried to imply why a 'balancing act' is required. She quoted excerpts of books, one written by none other than Teesta Setalvad, to portray how left-liberal bias and anti-Hindu (which is in proxy anti-India according to RSS) sentiments are clogging text books. She tried to give a rationale why any student would give anti-national slogans - a product of minds being "polluted" with such thoughts from a tender age. Irani didn’t really need to showcase these examples in a debate whose focal point was higher education and unrest in some of the elite institutes. But one suspects Irani managed to score brownie points by mimicking a classic RSS line of how education, especially history, has been saddled with left-liberal bias. She stopped short of saying that an urgent course correction is the need of the hour.
Irani said she has urged VC’s that universities shouldn’t become war-zones, which begs the question, were serious sedition charges needed to be slapped against the JNU students? Couldn’t the VC have had a calm chat with the students and try to solve the matter internally? This, alongside many other things, remained unanswered. Yet, her stirring speech will be remembered, as Irani managed to pit the JNU debate as a binary- national and anti-national debate. By invoking Indira Gandhi, Smriti has clearly laid a trap for the Gandhis. Supporting the JNU students is fraught with risk as often the nuance of supporting the right to speech even if one doesn’t agree with the content, is often lost in this day and age of hyper nationalism. Her hat-tip to the RSS line of thought regarding ‘improper history’ taught in schools and the jibes at Rahul Gandhi will not only provide a fillip to the HRD Minister’s political career, but also to the BJP at a time when it seemed like it was losing the plot in front of the rampaging opposition and civil society.
Irani's speech may not have answered all the questions, but it was a damn good defence under pressure. Is BJP's Sambit Patra taking notes?
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