What is it about Smriti Irani that attracts controversies like bees drawn to honey?

“It is very easy to be a ribbon-cutting minister. It is very easy not to do anything just to maintain popularity. It is very easy to wine and dine the right people, so that the right things get written about you. And that is why we always spoke about policy paralysis,” says Irani.

In a free-wheeling chat with BusinessLine , Irani said: “What was policy paralysis? It was a paralysis which set in where people would not want to do the right thing because it might offend somebody. It was a paralysis because people would do something so that it would benefit those who can be mollycoddled into patting them on the back.”

On the latest ‘fake news’ controversy that she courted with the media, Irani says: “…Everybody was jubilant that the guidelines were withdrawn. But how do you withdraw something that was never notified? But people were so trigger-happy. Now, look back... Isn’t it scary how many people carried that fake headline?”

“But did anyone to do basic journalism…here was the Information and Broadcasting Minister herself saying — come and talk to me. But nobody came. The Editors Guild of India’s head has not called me as we speak…”

Online media regulation

On her latest decision to constitute a committee to work out a mechanism to regulate online media, she said: “I am not very kind with words, but do the journalists who have been raving about (Section) 66A (of the) IT Act... know the difference between Information Technology and Information and Broadcasting? Online digital broadcasting has implications for copyright issues, consumer and advertorial, it affects even FDI. This is a grey area which we had absolutely no firm policy on.”

But the concerns appear to be on the composition of the committee.

“So who are the people who will sit and make this policy? Secretaries of DIPP, Law, MHA, I&B, industry representatives, DG of AIR, the radio operators’ association, Indian Broadcasting Foundation, News Broadcasters’ Association. What more do you want?” she added.

On the further opening up of the sector, Irani believes that one has to be very cautious, given the changes happening internationally.