[Watch] Did Union Minister Smriti Irani Threaten A Journalist?

New Delhi: The Congress party on Friday tweeted a video of union minister Smriti Irani interacting with a reporter in her Lok Sabha constituency Amethi. She seemed to be upset over the reporter’s question. The Minister of Women and Child Development event went to the extent of telling the reporter, who said he was from Dainik Bhaskar, that she’ll call the owner of his publication to inform him about the incident. The Amethi MP kept telling the reporter to ‘not insult the people of my constituency’. However, it wasn’t clear what actually transpired between the journalist and minister which made her so upset.

While tweeting the video, Congress took a swipe at Irani.

“Smriti Irani ji is threatening the journalist. The idea is to call the owner and eat his (reporter’s) job. It seems that the journalist must have asked – when will you get sugar for 13 rupees? Or when will the price of gas cylinder be reduced? Or why are you silent on the atrocities on daughters? If she could not answer, she came down to issuing threat. Smriti Irani ji because you wanted to understand – this is not love,” the Congress tweeted.

Reacting to the video, Dainik Bhaskar said the reporter is not its employee.

Tweeting the video posted by Congress, Bhaskar wrote, “In the video of the debate between Union Minister Smriti Irani and a journalist that is going viral on social media, the journalist named Vipin Yadav who is claiming himself to be a reporter of Dainik Bhaskar (DB Corp) is wrong. There is no permanent journalist of Dainik Bhaskar working in this constituency of Amethi Lok Sabha. Here Dainik Bhaskar gives news from its stringer network. But Vipin is not Bhaskar’s stringer.”