Modi tweets Smriti Irani speech – signals her rise to the top in BJP at the cost of Sushma Swaraj

February 25, 2016, NewsCrunch

PM Modi tweeted a link to a YouTube video showing Union Minister Smriti Irani’s full speech in Parliament  on Wednesday.

He further stamped his approval to her speech with a caption that held nothing back – satya meva jayate.

Smriti Irani should be thrilled at the public backing from her boss. She dutifully retweets everything he puts on Twitter. For a change, he was reciprocating in kind.

In her Wednesday speech, Smriti defended BJP in the Rohith Vemula suicide and JNU controversies as expected. But it was the ferocity with which she did so that was the surprise. Her tone seems to echo the BJP thinking that the nationalist controversy is a vote fetcher for the party.

Her speech would have shaken up not just the opposition, but also many of her party colleagues, specifically Sushma Swaraj, BJP’s top woman face till recently.

Modi groomed Smriti Irani after 2014 win to cut Sushma Swaraj to size, who had opposed him for years,  notes The Telegraph.

The 50-minute speech was a culmination of that move and Modi’s backing is affirmation that Smriti Irani not Sushma Swaraj is the top woman leader of BJP.

The Telegraph further notes that Smriti Irani also used the opportunity to impress the sangh paivaar, with references to Hindutva themes such as Ganga, Shiva and Bharat Mata.