Why zip it? 'Aunty National' Smriti Irani on Twitter controversy and more

New Delhi: A day after Smriti Irani was seen engaged in a Twitter spat with Bihar education minister Ashok Choudhary over the use of 'Dear' word and the status of the National Education Policy, the HRD Minsiter today poured her heart out in a long Facebook post emphasising on the need to speak out one’s mind (women folks especially),even at the cost of facing severe criticism.

Irani recalls the struggles of a girl child citing her example--when she was younger, people would tell girls to not respond - "no matter how humiliated" - when boys accosted them.

“…many girls who would walk to school / college and back home every day, go to the bazaar to get groceries and adequate sabzi in a given budget, would often be told if accosted by a boy or a bunch of them, don’t look up and keep walking straight. Don’t respond or retort no matter how humiliated you feel. But there would be those rebellious kinds (yours truly included), who would question why? Why not respond? Why zip it? The standard answer such a question begets is “It is not worth it. Nuksaan tumhara hoga , ladke ka kuch nahi bigadega”,” she writes further.

In the post that she writes-off as ‘Aunty National’, Smriti advises women to take the clichéd remarks in jest and speak up their mind.

“So to those girls walking with their heads down, look up and speak up; those women cracking the whip in their offices and asking their counterparts to finish the work assigned in the time frame prescribed, lead on,” she writes.

The article is also available on thenamopatrika.com, which, given its name, is presumably a webzine affiliated with the BJP.

She also jotted down a list of her achievements which according to her gets drowned in the controversy surrounding her.

• Over 4 lakh 17 thousand school toilets made in one year

• First time ever all NCERT school text books from classes 1 to 12 available free online - ePathshala

• First time ever all Kendriya Vidyalayas are providing SMS to alert parents of student attendance and lesson details- Shala Darpan

• First time ever benchmarking of student performances in CBSE schools-Saraansh

• First time ever, school evaluation system focused on learning outcomes-Shaala Siddhi

• First time ever, a mentoring and scholarship program to send our girls to technical institutes- UDAAN

• First time ever, all teachers trained in inclusive education to facilitate students with special needs

• First time ever, 10,000 undegraduate scholarships and exposure visits for students from the Northeastunder Ishan Uday and Ishan Vikas

• First time ever, focused interventions to improve Math and Science levels- Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan

• First time ever, focused interventions to improve reading and writing levels- Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat

• First time ever, the UGC Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in HEIs to protect women employees and students

• First time ever, a portal dedicated to Indian languages- Bharatvani

• First time ever, collaborated effort to focus research on the development goal posts of the country- IMPRINT

• First time ever, SAARC Declaration on Education

• First time ever, Aryabhata’s bust installed at UNESCO headquarters to acknowledge India’s contribution in mathematics and astronomy

• First time ever,IIT fee waivers for economically weaker sections

• First time ever, collaborations with Standford, University of Pennsylvania and MIT to strengthen HEIs in India

• First time ever, focused effort to bring high quality international faculty to teach in India through GIAN

• First time ever, a credit framework to pursue formal education and vocational training- SAMVAY

• First time ever, a national institutional rankings framework

• First time ever, a grassroots based consultation on developing a national policy, including over 2 lakh village education committees