Shakti? Durga and Desh. Rahul? Disrespectful: Smriti Irani’s Rapid Fire Round at Rising Bharat Summit | Watch

For Union Minister Smriti Irani, ‘shakti’ means ‘Durga and desh’, while ‘Modi’ means ‘shakti ke upasak’. The BJP leader and Amethi MP sportingly took part in a rapid fire round of word association towards the end of a session at the CNN-News18 Rising Bharat Summit on Tuesday.

For the word ‘Rahul’ she responded with ‘maryada-heen’, while for ‘370’ she replied with ‘400 paar’, a reference to the BJP’s target of 400-plus seats in the Lok Sabha elections this time. Asked what words or phrases she would associate with ‘Smriti’, the minister promptly responded with ‘maa’.

Appearing in the session titled ‘Smashing the Status Quo’ at the summit, Irani also took potshots at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi whom she ousted from the Amethi constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“Leader is confused, cadre is confused, (INDIA) alliance is confused, but mercifully people of India are not confused,” she said.

“Modi is the only leader who has given us a national ambition like 2047…. We need to create more opprtuinities… Rahul Gandhi offers division on the basis of religion and caste. He tells you do not become atmanirbhar. He glorifies poverty,” she said.

Referring to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s decision to not contest general elections this time, Irani said the grand old party has “run away” from Rae Bareli too.

“In Amethi, they did not do anything for so many years. This family won’t be able to win Amethi and now they have fled from Rae Bareli too. This family only wants people to beg to them… They could do things, but they did not. This is the tendency of this family. When I first went to Amethi, nobody gave me a place to stay. People were so scared of this family there. I was fortunate that I was the one who made this family taste defeat,” Irani added.