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Of Amethi brickbats and coming of age

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New Delhi: Amethi, a landlocked town in the Amethi district of Faizabad divison of Uttar Pradesh, has been one of the most politically significant towns in Indian history.

It is not a mere blip on the map of India but is synonymous as the political stronghold of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty since 1966, where at least once in their careers, former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his grandsons Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi’s widow Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi have represented the constituency.

Amethi has elected a Non-Nehru dynasty Congress person to parliament for two terms (Vidyadhar Bajpai 1966-77) and a non-congress M.P once (Ravindra Pratap Singh, Janata Party, 1977–80) and Dr. Sanjay Singh.

Circa 2015, Amethi finds its name splashed across headlines of national newspapers and national television as the battleground of two political heavyweights. One is the scion and heir apparent to one of India’s oldest political party whereas the other is a television actor turned politician who grew up as a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and is the incumbent Union Minister of Human Resource Development.

Both Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Zubin Irani fought in the 2014 General Elections from Amethi. While Irani fought from a ticket provided to her by the BJP, Rahul Gandhi fought to protect the legacy of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, with the latter barely wining at the last moment by a 12.32% margin.

Gandhi and Irani come from opposite ends of the Indian social spectrum. While Rahul has seen power up, close and personal, having celebrated birthdays in airplanes and being politically groomed since birth, Irani is the grand-daughter of Jana Sangh member and had to work at McDonald’s before getting a break when she was a finalist for Miss India in 1998.

In the coming of age battle of the two, it seems that neither is willing to take the back seat. While Irani blew the clarion for an all-out war with Rahul during her visit to Amethi, where she blamed her opponent of not being able to look after her constituency and kick-start a food park in the town that got the latter scurrying to Amethi for a two-day visit.

Despite being at the receiving end of criticism on her handling of the HRD ministry, Irani has held her own and is coming of age as a politician. And targeting Rahul can only aid her in her career.

Her weak point currently is her own party’s wariness about her. They may think of her as an uncontrollable force. So they will be waiting for her to trip at HRD.

The real issue with Smriti is not her decisions per se, but the attitude of her critics. What they have against her is not her actions, but who she is.

The fact is she does not fit the normal template of a woman politician associated with the BJP. One would expect a BJP woman minister to conform to a Sadhvi or Bharatiya nari template, but she has turned out to be modern and combative – and feminist in her own way. Despite seeming to follow some elements of the Sangh’s agenda, she comes across as a woman with a mind of her own.

If Smriti gets her national education policy and RTE changes right, she will have become a politician with substance. She is currently the right riposte to Rahul Gandhi. But her feistiness suggests that she can aspire for something bigger than just being Rahul Gandhi’s sparring partner.

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