Smriti Irani as HRD Minister, Why Not

At a time when criticising the majority central government of Narendra Modi could be seen as an act of grave stupidity, it requires great moral courage and strength of conviction, not to mention the guts to bear ridicule, to attempt anything of that kind. However it is quite heartening that in a speech in the Lok Sabha the Prime Minister spoke about how he is open to all forms of criticisms and how criticism is the best form of guidance.

In a strange mutation, many of the earlier criticisers of our PM have suddenly turned approvers. When the triumphalism of his perpetual supporters is easy to fathom, what is difficult to understand is how many of his former detractors have suddenly jumped over the fence and became approvers. In this post-poll change of mindset, many Indians have comfortably abandoned many of the principles they had closely held in the past. This mindset change is most evident in the way in which Smriti Irani was easily accepted as the HRD Minister (read Education Minister) of our country. 

When it is most true that Indian constitution doesn’t prevent anyone from becoming the Education Minister on the basis of his or her education qualification; when it is most true that it is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to chose his council of ministers, it is extremely strange that even those who were pretty vocal in their calls to bring in only educated people as our elected representatives have suddenly become mum and have accepted a 12th standard pass as the Education Minister of our great country. We will talk about the false affidavits the minister had submitted to the election commission in the latter part of this essay, but will start with first things first.

Whenever someone makes an issue about this “12th standard pass” factor, he or she is immediately ridiculed as an elitist. Before jumping on to such a conclusion about this writer, his readers would do good to consider his arguments too. If Ms. Irani was an underprivileged person who had no recourse for continued education, it would have been a matter of real pity. However her family history doesn’t provide any clue that she was forced to discontinue her education after her 12th standard because of lack of financial provisions in her family. Even if she had - for an argument let’s assume it was so - she has been in the political field for more than a decade and in these years she had more than enough opportunities to pursue her education, but she chose not to. Being from a party whose manifesto speaks profusely about the importance of higher education, it was incumbent upon Ms. Irani to pursue her higher education. It is a matter of great shame that we as a country have an HRD Minister who personally doesn’t think it important to pursue higher education. How can we expect such a minister to take steps to make sure that higher education in the country is of the highest quality and most of those who aim for higher education get opportunities to pursue it?

Like many other commentators, this writer also doesn’t believe a person with a good educational background can invariably be a good administrator. The converse view that a person without a good educational background may well be an able administrator is also inarguably true. However to put the onus of a ministry as important as HRD ministry to a naive, untested newcomer as Ms. Irani is not a decision that would be called prudent by any stretch of imagination. Though she has been in charge of BJP’s Mahila Morcha for many years, she doesn’t have the administrative experience of governing even a panchayat. Otherwise she should have been someone whom the people of a constituency have elected with overwhelming majority; but she is neither that. Neither is she known for her erudition on matters of great national importance nor has she ever spoken about or written on her path breaking ideas on improving education in India. If she was either an experienced administrator or an educationist of repute or an extremely popular leader with an enormous mandate, one could have overlooked her poor educational qualifications. But if it is only the ‘hope’ that one ‘might’ come out as an able minister the basis on which we elect or nominate a person for a post as important as this, then it must be understood that we are setting an intrinsically wrong precedent. Therefore it is very important to question the rationale on which the decision has been made by the PM. As Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India, our PM now, it is important for us to trust his judgment, but to question that judgment on the basis of sound facts as explained above is neither injudicious nor stupid, contrary to the belief of many blind supporters of the man, who have unquestioningly bought the dreams he sold during his election campaign. 

A cursory glance at the list of Education Ministers India has had will make it clear that it was always learned men and women who have been at the helm. The argument that those learned people haven’t brought any considerable improvement to the educational scenario of the country is a churlish one only morons will make. From a country of grave illiteracy in the pre-independence era, India has undergone great and salutary changes in primary education. Our higher education institutions like the IITs and the IIMs are world class and they give the Harvards and the Cambridges a run for their money. At a time when education and human resources development are the fields on which global competition is played on, what kind of signal do we send to the world with an under-educated minister in the HRD ministry, who chose to ignore the personal need for continuing education to the higher levels?

Social media is abuzz with a video of Ms. Irani speaking extempore on a stage. Many of those who support her ascendancy to the ministership can also be seen boasting, via captions to the video, if there are any Congress leaders who can match her oratory skills (commenting on the ability of any Congress leader to match the skills would be childish when that party has world famous orators like Shashi Tharoor in its ranks). When there is no doubt that Ms. Irani is a lady of immense oratorical talent, it by no means advances her eligibility of becoming a minister of HRD. Angelina Jolie, an apt comparison with Ms. Irani because of their identical career backgrounds, speaks equally well on global stages. But a US president can never be expected to consider that as criteria to make her the Secretary of Education in the administration. Ronald Reagan, another actor who later became the President of the United States, had to show his mettle in many other administrative fields, including the Governor of California, before putting forth his candidacy to the top job. 

It is also quite bemusing to see those who were extremely vocal (and rightly so) about the lack of integrity of the UPA ministers have suddenly gone into their cocoons of silence when it comes to the questions on integrity of the ministers of Modi Sarkar. The discrepancy in the affidavits filed by Smriti Irani in 2004 and 2014 about her educational qualifications cannot be rejected as a mere oversight or inadvertent human error (if she is unsure about even her educational qualifications, then it is all the more reason to not accept her as our HRD Minister). Ms. Irani had promised that she will come clean about the issue, but hasn’t spoken anything about it till this day. Neither the media nor those commentators who were lucid about the importance of integrity for a national government appear to have any problem with it. May be all of them have also crossed over and joined the other side where real power vests now.