Back in 2004, a lot of people in the BJP felt that the party’s “India Shining” slogan had failed because of the Gujarat riots. Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time. The party was also dealing with a lot of internal disagreements, and these conflicts would often become public. A great example of this happened on December 12, 2004. An actress who had joined the BJP just a year earlier was in Surat for a shop inauguration when she made a surprising statement.
She demanded that Narendra Modi resign as Chief Minister. Her argument was that if he stepped down, it would show that the BJP was a party with a different kind of politics. She went even further, threatening to begin a hunger strike on Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday, December 25, if he didn’t resign. This was just the beginning of her incredible political story.
The story fast-forwards ten years to 2014. The same TV actress was shooting in Shimla with two legends, Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor. Suddenly, her phone rang right in the middle of a scene. The person on the other end gave her a direct order: “Leave for Delhi immediately.” The actress didn’t ask any questions; she simply packed up and started her journey. Along the way, she called a BJP leader named Piyush Goyal. She asked him for two passes to the swearing-in ceremony, explaining that her children wanted to see Narendra Modi become Prime Minister.
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Goyal’s response was probably not what she expected. He told her that she would definitely get two passes, as she herself would be sworn in as a cabinet minister. This was a massive moment for her. But her biggest career moment was still five years away. For the next five years, she would have to live in a small town in Uttar Pradesh, going from house to house to connect with the people. Her goal was to do something that political legends like Sharad Yadav and Kanshi Ram had never managed: defeat the Gandhi family in their stronghold. The stage was set, and the final battle was about to begin. The elections were held, and when the results came in, history was made. The Gandhi family’s political fortress had fallen. The person who had taken it down was then rewarded by her party.
Narendra Modi was about to be sworn in as Prime Minister for the second time, and another voice was heard. It was the voice that had been talked about for the past five years: “I am Smriti Zubin Irani.”
So, who is Smriti Irani? And how did she go from being an actress who demanded Narendra Modi’s resignation to becoming his Human Resource Minister, even after losing an election? How did she become a strong pillar in the cabinet of the very leader she once opposed? And why did her political star begin to dim after all that?
Smriti’s father, Ajay Malhotra, was Punjabi, and her mother, Shivani Bagchi, was Bengali. Their marriage was against the wishes of their families. Her father was not well-educated and ran a bookstall outside an Army club in Delhi. Smriti has often shared stories about selling books with him. She also says her mother worked as a cleaner in hotels. Because her parents had three daughters in a row, they faced a lot of discrimination.
Smriti started working at the age of 18, first selling cosmetics. She eventually dropped out of her studies and moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in acting. She tried out for Miss India but didn’t make it past the finals. She also applied for a job as an air hostess at Jet Airways but was rejected. Despite the continuous rejections, she refused to give up. As she often says, nothing has ever come easy for her. To make ends meet in Mumbai, she took a job at a McDonald’s in Bandra, earning just ₹1,800 a month. Her struggles continued, and in 1998, she was even a background dancer in a music video for Mika Singh. She also did commercials for sanitary pads.
After many auditions, Smriti Malhotra got her first TV role in a show called U Lala. She was a last-minute replacement for actress Neelam Kothari, who had fallen ill. Soon, other producers started calling, and she landed a role as the heroine’s sister in a new serial by Ekta Kapoor. She went to Ekta Kapoor’s office to sign the contract, but Ekta, after asking for her name, tore up the paper. This was a huge blow for Smriti. She was already under pressure from her father to get a good job or get married.
But what happened next was even more surprising. Ekta Kapoor had a spiritual guru in her office who looked at Smriti and said, “This girl will go very far.” Right then and there, Ekta offered Smriti the lead role in her upcoming serial, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. This was the role of Tulsi Virani, a character that would become Smriti Irani’s permanent identity. As the ideal daughter-in-law, she became a beloved figure in households all across the country. The show became one of the longest-running TV serials in India, with over 1,800 episodes over eight years.
In 2001, Smriti Malhotra married Zubin Irani and became Smriti Irani. Zubin came from a Parsi family. In 2003, while she was shooting near Mumbai, a local BJP leader named Manisha Chaudhary met her. Smriti praised Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manisha offered her a chance to join the BJP. Manisha spoke to senior party leaders, and after a series of meetings, it was decided to bring Smriti into national politics. On November 15, 2003, Smriti officially joined the BJP in Delhi.
During her first press conference, a journalist asked her a question about Sonia Gandhi. Smriti, who had just entered politics, answered without hesitation. She said that all women should be respected, but her self-respect did not allow her to be governed by a woman born abroad. This was a classic BJP talking point, and it showed that Smriti had done her homework. She wasn’t just another celebrity joining politics to draw crowds; she was active and ambitious. She was often seen at BJP Yuva Morcha events and protests against the Congress-led government. During one protest in Mumbai, things got serious, and Smriti was injured in a police lathi-charge. Her TV show’s shooting was even stopped until she was released on bail.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Smriti Irani was given a ticket to contest from the Chandni Chowk seat in Delhi. She was up against a senior lawyer and Congress candidate, Kapil Sibal. This was the era of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s “India Shining” campaign, and the BJP was confident. But the election results were a shock. The BJP-led NDA lost badly, and Smriti Irani also lost, getting only 48,000 votes while Sibal defeated her by a margin of 1 lakh votes.
In December 2004, just a few months after her election loss, Smriti was in Surat to inaugurate a jewelry shop. A group of journalists was waiting outside, but no one expected her to say what she said next. She accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of tarnishing the party’s image and announced that she would go on a hunger strike on December 25 if he didn’t resign. Her words would be quoted against her for years to come.
The hunger strike never happened. Instead, she learned a valuable political lesson. The BJP at the time was divided into two main factions, one led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the other by L.K. Advani. Smriti was brought into the party by Pramod Mahajan, who was close to Vajpayee. Modi and Advani were also in conflict with each other. Because of the Gujarat riots, Modi was a target for everyone, even some of his own party members. Vajpayee had even publicly told him to follow “Rajdharma” (the duties of a righteous ruler). The 2004 election defeat was also blamed on the Gujarat riots.
But for a politician who had only been in the party for a year, publicly demanding a Chief Minister’s resignation was a huge mistake. She was a novice, and she had overstepped her bounds. She had to apologize. The very night she made the statement, she released a new one, unconditionally withdrawing her comments. Many people thought her political career was over. But Smriti had learned her lesson. She understood which way the wind was blowing. Two months later, she was seen at Advani’s house in Delhi, touching Narendra Modi’s feet. Modi put his hand on her head and called her “the daughter of Gujarat.”
The political landscape was changing. Vajpayee’s health was declining, and Pramod Mahajan was murdered in 2006. Smriti’s TV career also began to fade after some failed projects and a falling out with Ekta Kapoor. She decided to dedicate herself full-time to politics. She started working with Nitin Gadkari, who was the Maharashtra BJP President at the time. She became the president of the State Mahila Morcha and, in 2010, the national president of the BJP Mahila Morcha when Gadkari became the national president.
In 2011, there were elections for three Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat. Two seats were expected to go to the BJP. Gadkari wanted to send Smriti Irani to the Rajya Sabha, but Narendra Modi had a different candidate in mind—Nirmala Sitharaman. However, the power dynamic in the party was different back then. Gadkari had his way, and Smriti Irani was selected. She entered Parliament for the first time in 2011. It’s an interesting coincidence that just a few years later, all three of them—Gadkari, Smriti, and Nirmala Sitharaman—would be part of Modi’s cabinet.
During this time, the anti-government sentiment against the UPA II government was at its peak. As the head of the Mahila Morcha, Smriti was a very visible face of the protests against rising prices and the Nirbhaya case. For the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP declared Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, and Smriti was one of his most vocal supporters on TV. The same Smriti who had once demanded his resignation was now his biggest advocate.
Just 22 days before the 2014 elections, the party made a big decision. They would challenge the Nehru-Gandhi family in their home turf of Amethi. The Congress candidate was Rahul Gandhi, who had been the MP from Amethi since 2004. This was a seat the Congress had rarely lost. The BJP knew it would be a tough fight, and they sent Smriti Irani to be their soldier. The election became a face-off between Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani. She campaigned tirelessly, going to every village, while Rahul seemed confident of his victory. When the results came in, the Congress party was devastated across the country. In Amethi, Smriti suffered a crushing defeat, but there was a silver lining. Rahul Gandhi’s margin of victory had shrunk significantly compared to the 2009 elections, which gave political analysts hope that the seat could be won in the future.
Even though she lost, Smriti was rewarded for her efforts. On May 26, 2014, she was in Shimla, where she had been shooting a cameo for a film with her husband. She received a call early in the morning, telling her to come to Delhi for the swearing-in ceremony. On the way, she called Piyush Goyal, asking for a pass for her daughter to attend. Goyal’s response, as she has recounted in many interviews, was completely unexpected. He congratulated her and told her she was also taking the oath as a Cabinet Minister. She was just 38 years old, making her the youngest minister in Modi’s cabinet. She was given the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now the Ministry of Education).
Because a first-time MP was given such an important ministry, many people saw it as an attempt by the BJP to create a new female leader to rival senior leader Sushma Swaraj. However, her appointment was immediately met with suspicion. People questioned whether she was qualified for the job, and these questions came not just from the opposition, but also from people within her own party and the RSS. Her tenure as HRD Minister was filled with controversies, and she was often at odds with educational institutions and officials.
For example, in June 2014, she forced Delhi University’s Vice Chancellor, Dinesh Singh, to cancel a four-year degree course, a decision that upset both the BJP and its affiliated organizations. The move was seen as an interference in the autonomy of a national university. She also had conflicts with the directors of IITs and a committee chairman over education policy.
Another major point of contention was her educational background. In her election affidavits, she had given different and conflicting information about her degrees. In 2004, she claimed to have completed a B.A. through a correspondence course from Delhi University. In 2011 and 2014, she said she had passed B.Com Part 1. In 2019, she added a line that the three-year course was “not completed.” This meant that she had not graduated. While a court later dismissed the case as an attempt to harass her, the questions about her qualifications persisted. During one interview, she claimed to have a “degree” from Yale University, which turned out to be a six-day certificate program. She was trolled online for not knowing the difference, and she later clarified that she was talking about a certificate, and her words had been misunderstood.
The controversies continued. On January 17, 2016, a 26-year-old research scholar named Rohith Vemula committed suicide at Hyderabad Central University. He had been expelled from the hostel after a conflict with students from a pro-BJP student group. His friends and supporters blamed the Vice Chancellor, a local MP, and Smriti Irani for his death. This led to nationwide protests.
Just a month later, on February 9, 2016, news channels began reporting that anti-national slogans had been raised at JNU. Videos went viral, and the President of the JNU Students’ Union, Kanhaiya Kumar, was arrested. The JNU and Rohith Vemula issues became a national talking point.
During a Parliament session in February, the opposition attacked Smriti Irani, accusing her of promoting the saffronisation of education and stifling free speech. They demanded her resignation. In response, Smriti gave a fierce speech in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, showing a side of herself that was very different from the calm Tulsi Virani.
She defended the government’s actions and accused the opposition of using Rohith Vemula’s death for political gain. She pointed out that many of the people involved in the decision to expel Vemula were appointed by the previous UPA government. She said that no one tried to save Rohith and that they were now playing politics over his dead body. She also said she would not apologize because she was simply doing her duty. She was so furious that she even challenged Mayawati, who had raised the issue of discrimination against Dalit students. Smriti told her that if she was not satisfied with her answer, she would “cut off her head and place it at her feet.”
Her speech caused an uproar. The opposition accused her of using derogatory language for a Hindu goddess, Durga, after she read a pamphlet that described the goddess in a derogatory way. The protests got even more intense. She was called “illiterate” on social media, and an article in The Telegraph criticized her statements.
In June 2016, she wrote a long Facebook post defending herself, writing about the struggles of being a female politician and a successful woman. She said that women are often told to be silent and that rebellious girls are told they will be the ones to lose out. She recalled her tough campaigns against Kapil Sibal and Rahul Gandhi and how, despite all her accomplishments, she was still called illiterate by some “intellectuals.” She ended the post with the words “Regards, Antinational,” a bold jab at her critics.
While her supporters praised the post, her opponents accused her of trying to hide behind her gender. The following month, in July 2016, she was removed from the Ministry of Human Resource Development and given the less important Ministry of Textiles. Many people saw this as a demotion and a sign that she had failed to live up to the trust Narendra Modi had placed in her. There were some rumors that she was being prepared for a bigger role in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2017, but this turned out to be false. The responsibility for UP was given to Yogi Adityanath.
In July 2017, she was given the additional charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This new role also brought its share of controversy. In April 2018, she issued a highly criticized order that would allow the government to blacklist journalists for creating “fake news.” The media and the opposition were outraged, calling it an attack on the freedom of the press. The Prime Minister’s Office had to step in, and the order was withdrawn within just 24 hours.
FAQs
Q: Who is Smriti Irani? A: Smriti Irani is an Indian politician and former television actress. She is known for her role as Tulsi Virani in the popular TV serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and for her work as a prominent leader in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Q: What was Smriti Irani’s role in the TV show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi? A: Smriti Irani played the lead role of Tulsi Virani, the ideal daughter-in-law, in the serial. Her portrayal of the character made her a household name across India and was a major part of her early career.
Q: Did Smriti Irani ever demand Narendra Modi’s resignation? A: Yes, in 2004, when she was a new member of the BJP, Smriti Irani publicly demanded the resignation of then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi following the Gujarat riots. She even threatened to go on a hunger strike if he did not step down. She later withdrew her statement and apologized.
Q: How did Smriti Irani get into politics? A: Smriti Irani was invited to join the BJP in 2003 after a local party leader heard her praise Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Her public speaking skills and celebrity status quickly helped her rise through the party ranks.
Q: What happened in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections regarding Smriti Irani? A: In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Smriti Irani was chosen by the BJP to contest from the Amethi constituency, the traditional stronghold of the Nehru-Gandhi family. She ran against Rahul Gandhi and, although she lost, she significantly reduced his margin of victory, which was seen as a major political achievement.
Q: Was Smriti Irani made a minister even after losing the 2014 election? A: Yes, despite her electoral defeat in Amethi, Smriti Irani was appointed as the Minister of Human Resource Development in Narendra Modi’s first cabinet in 2014. She was the youngest minister in the cabinet at the time.
Q: Why was Smriti Irani’s educational background controversial? A: Smriti Irani’s educational qualifications became a point of controversy because her election affidavits from different years contained conflicting information about her degrees. The claims ranged from having a B.A. through a correspondence course to having a B.Com Part 1 certificate, with later affidavits stating she did not complete her graduation.
Q: Why was Smriti Irani removed from the Ministry of Human Resource Development? A: Smriti Irani’s tenure as HRD Minister was marked by several controversies, including clashes with educational institutions, questions about her qualifications, and her aggressive public debates with the opposition. Many saw her move to the less prominent Ministry of Textiles in 2016 as a demotion, though it was not officially framed that way.
Q: What was Smriti Irani’s role in the controversies at JNU and Hyderabad University? A: As HRD Minister, Smriti Irani was at the center of the controversies surrounding the suicide of Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad University and the protests at JNU. She was accused by the opposition of being anti-Dalit and of stifling freedom of expression. She fiercely defended the government’s actions and her ministry’s stance in Parliament.
Q: What was the “Antinational” comment Smriti Irani made? A: After facing continuous criticism and online trolling, Smriti Irani wrote a powerful Facebook post in June 2016 about the challenges faced by women in politics. She ended her post with the words “Regards, Antinational,” sarcastically adopting the term that her critics had used to describe her.
