Smriti Irani lambasts Congress for extorting vendor in Kerala for Rahul Gandhi's yatra

At the Republic Bharat's Rashtra Sarvopari Sammelan, Union Minister of Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs Smriti Irani on Friday lambasted Gandhi-Vadra Congress over its dynastic politics for decades. She also took a dig at former Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his work as an MP in his previous constituency Amethi, and questioned the Bharat Jodo Yatra. 

When Republic Media Network's editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami asked the Union Minister about schemes like MGNREGA which was brought by the UPA government, she stated, "I am an MP from Amethi, let me inform you that 499 factories there were shut down in 10 years by mahashay (ex-MP Rahul Gandhi), there was no employment in Amethi. There was only one person and family employed there. For MGNREGA, it was PM Narendra Modi who said for the first time that we will make capital assets for wages. Money was transferred directly to bank accounts."

Referring to a shocking incident where a Congress party worker's hooliganism was caught on camera in Kerala where a vegetable shopkeeper was allegedly harassed and intimidated by party workers for not contributing 'enough' amount to the party's fund collection campaign for Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', Irani said, "When you start a yatra where you claim that you want to unify the country, you beat up a vegetable vendor to collect funds? Is this democracy?"

Smriti Irani on what is 'death of democracy'

Earlier in the interaction, she spelt out what is the "death of democracy", and said that democracy dies when political leaders are selected based on their genetics and not merits, and when the democratically-elected Prime Minister is insulted. "People who talk about democracy should know that democracy actually dies when you choose your politician not on the basis of merit, but on the basis of genetics. Democracy dies when one hosts terrorists who forced Kashmiri Pandits to flee and didn't spare IAF officers. Democracy dies when a Presidential candidate is insulted. Democracy died several times under the erstwhile UPA government. "