The Gen Next Leader
Smriti Irani represents the Gen Next leadership among women leaders, in the Bhartiya Janata Party. With her powerful public speaking skills, Irani joins the ranks of Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman in the party. Irani is the BJP’s answer to Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, a constituency in Uttar Pradesh which till now was home turf for the Congress party.
A former television actor, Irani today handles the crucial Textiles Ministry in addition to the I&B Ministry. It was in her leadership that the textiles ministry approved a Rs 6,000 crore package, which made the sector globally competitive and gave it an edge in the external markets.
Irani’s initiative of promoting handloom clothes through the hashtag #IWearHandloom has gone viral with many celebrities endorsing it and using the hashtag and thus promoting hand woven and handloom clothes.
The textile ministry impacts more than 45 million people directly and nearly 20 million households indirectly. Irani has judiciously handled the transition phase during early days of GST implementation. There was no tax on cotton fabrics earlier. But, the union government has imposed 5 per cent GST on cotton fabrics and has also hiked the GST from 5 per cent tax to 15 per cent on polyester fabrics. She has been proactive in handling any unwanted situation in this labour sensitive industry.
Her stint as the I&B Minister, so far, has been eventful, if not controversial. The reported feud between the Minister and Prasar Bharati Chairman over the body’s autonomy recently hogged headlines, with Irani refusing to cede ground.She has also changed the way things work at the Ministry.
One account says how she streamlined the way advertising had been handled in ministry. She had instructed the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Ads to give advertisements in the newspapers that are regular in statements to Registrar of Newspapers in India. This has reduced number of newspapers enjoying advertisements to one-fourth.
A Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, Irani is a regular speaker at party platforms. As someone who enjoys the confidence of PM Narendra Modi, Irani has a very bright future ahead.
