HRD Minster Smriti Irani is never far from the headlines. She is frequently in the eye of storms that are something of a tempest in a teacup; such as the currently trending #DearSmriti hashtag that started soon after her rather public Twitter tu-tu-main-main with the Bihar Education Minister. Apparently Ms Irani had some difficulty with being addressed as ‘Dear’ by the Bihar minister and Twitter predictably erupted in glee at the chance to voice its opinion about the issue.
The #DearSmriti tweet
Here is how the he-said-she-said unfolded: Dr. Ashok Choudhary, the minister from Bihar wanted to know about the New Education Policy, pointing out that it was overdue:
Image source
Instead of answering the question, Irani responded with this tweet:
Prevarication much? In any case, the Bihar minister took the liberty of ‘educating’ the central minister about the fact that professional emails do start with the term “dear” and asked that Irani reply on the point in question.
Then Twitter had its say
The Tweeple had a field day with it all. People were anxious to ‘educate’ with lessons from the Grammar Bible Wren & Martin, to point out that dear is a gender neutral term.
There was a flurry of research too; older tweets where Irani was addressed as ‘dear’ in other communications or where she herself had addressed others with the term suddenly surfaced.
Various reasons were also imputed for the Twitter spat by Twitterers. Some felt that the tempest in a teacup was meant to keep oneself in the limelight.
Some tweets pointed out how important it was to be ‘educated’
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Inevitably (some would say unfairly) reference was made to the union minister’s stint in TV’s regressive saas-bahu serials as well.
Image sources Twitter and Newscrunch
Author – Reena Daruwalla
