ArpitGarg's Weblog

First of all kudos to Modi and Amit Shah for the cabinet reshuffle. After a long time reshuffle has been performance based. Not able to resolve Rajya Sabha logjam lost Venkaiah his ministry. Falling into one controversy after another and not able to take people along lost Smriti Irani HRD. I never imagined such a performance based axing was possible in India.

None of the pundits predicted even after swearing in that Smriti or Naidu could be moved to different ministries. Now they have nothing to criticize. Policy criticism aside, I applaud PM when it’s due and this is one such case. It shows he has not lost track of the pulse. After 10 years of entitlement politics and policy paralysis, I never thought such preemptive actions were possible in Indian politics.

Coming to the big news; Smriti Irani being moved out of HRD. I agree that not all controversies were Irani’s creation. There were vested interests at play. But where she failed was to quell those controversies in a calm manner. She went confrontational. It could have worked in political fights, but confrontation with youth was never a good idea. She did what perhaps I would have done, fight it out. But with HRD minister, there were different expectations. She should have played smart. Should have gone about making changes without herself getting in confrontational mode. She should have let her surrogates and proxies do the fighting.

Second was the women card. She played it a bit too far. She aped Kejriwal in that regard. It is correct that she was targeted by elites for her acting background, just like BJP has crippled Delhi Govt for last year. But playing victim can only go so far. After a while it shows lack of maturity and inability to handle things. With “Dear” thing she went a bit too far.

She has done some good things at HRD but failed to build her legacy. She has age on her side and with time she will learn how to act smart and take people along. I firmly believe that she has a bright future ahead. Her oratory skills, a key in politics, are next to none. When media talk about her being contender to entitled Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, I just laugh. I believe Rahul Gandhi will be the one who will have to fight it out in 2019 against Irani.