Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smriti Irani on Tuesday, June 14 engaged in war of words with Bihar Education Minister, Ashok Choudhary on the micro-blogging website, Twitter over usage of word ‘Dear ‘ for a lady minister.
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Choudhary earlier in a tweet had referred to Irani as “Dear” Smriti Irani ji. Taking exception to Mr Choudhary’s address to her as “Dear”, Ms Irani tweeted, “Mahilaon ko dear keh ke kab se sambodhit karne lage, Ashokji (Ashokji, ehen did you start addressing women as dear)”.
Irani, addressing Choudhary as “Sir”, said she would make the minutes public now and said her requests to fill teacher vacancies and for land for Kendriya Vidyalayas and Central University Motihari remained unfulfilled. He cited several references from the past to drive home his point.
In her Facebook post, Ms Irani talks about rebelling at every stage of her life and career against women being told to ignore attempts to humiliate them.
“Not to disrespect but educate.professional email start with “dear”. smritiraniji kabhi mudde pe jawab dijiye, dont circle around it”, Chowdhary replied.
A debate raged over whether the Bihar politician’s tweet to Ms Irani on Monday was sexist after the minister asked Mr Choudhary if it was good form to address a woman as “Dear”. She said this is not the way she should be called in such way.
Issues of etiquette in official communication also cropped up during the barrage of tweets unleashed against each other.
As is often the case, Irani was being hung, drawn and quartered on social media for what many termed as her “foot in mouth” syndrome.
She claimed that Bihar is possibly the only state which has not done grassroot consultations for the education policy.
Now it was Mr. Choudhary’s turn: “I know how to deliver on my promises”.
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“Yadav, however, launched a counter-attack, tweeting, “@smritiirani ji has learnt a lot from Modiji.Fake promises and shifting blames to others for non-delivery is lesson1 in Sangh’s book”.
