Waqf Bill sent to House panel to allow every point of view, says Smriti Irani

Speaking on the introduction of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Irani said, “That day we had unanimity and the numbers in the House. But we still had it considered for the JPC so that every political point of view, and citizens at large, can depose before the JPC, can come and give their point of view. So I think that is a manifestation of the Prime Minister not literally ramrodding things, but actually creating a more participative environment for every point of view to come. With Prime Minister Modi, everything is a possibility.”

“The Prime Minister’s whole body of work also has an element of representative points of view across the polity. When the Surrogacy Bill was coming, I believe, in the Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh had certain concerns about it. Me and Bhupender Yadav, we heard him out in the gallery. We went back to our leadership. The leadership said, okay, widen the whole conversation. Hear… what the Congress has to say. If the concerns are legitimate, then address them. So, the Prime Minister has always functioned like that.”

On her loss in Amethi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Irani said she went to Amethi in 2014 with full awareness that the BJP was organisationally the weakest there. “I went knowing that not only are we organisationally weak there, but our people connect was very weak. I went there knowing that Amethi’s disposition, from a voting community perspective, is not favourable for the BJP. I went there nonetheless. So, it’s not as if I did not know that there will come a time when I will be dispossessed of that opportunity. If you remember what the Prime Minister said in his 2014 speech in Amethi, he said badle ki nahin, badlaav ki bhawna se aa rahe hain (we want change, not revenge). We wanted to establish that we are the better option, which I did.”

Asked what she thought about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asking people not to attack her after the Lok Sabha elections, Irani said Gandhi was “cognizant of the fact that there is an overwhelming national response to my work and contribution to Amethi”.

She said that she helped build more than 1 lakh homes, 3.5 lakh toilets, educational and healthcare facilities, and roads in 800 villages of Amethi. “I had done much that the combined force of the family had not done in the so-called family bastion,” she said.

Suggesting that Gandhi’s call for civility was more a tactic than a belief that political discourse should be civil, she said the abuse coming her way reflected badly on the family. “I also believe if everybody was of the belief that attacks on me are not to be sexualised, then they would not have promoted all the men who flung sexual slurs at me. So, I think it was more to show the grandeur of civility on behalf of the family than a belief that the discourse has to be civil,” she said.

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