The BJP feels constrained to villainise our martyrs because it has no national heroes to call its own

Union minister Smriti Irani's obsession with the Nehru-Gandhi siblings seems unending and always gets the better of her. The latest in this saga, after demanding of a wayside vendor in Amethi if Rahul Gandhi ever stopped by to sample his lassi like she did (how was that even relevant except as a crude attempt at oneupmanship?), she seems to now have caught hold of the wrong end of the stick by linking Priyanka Gandhi to terrorism.

Of course, Priyanka (who, like her brother, usually does not respond to Irani's rants) this time, urged by television reporters, had a fitting reply – yes, I have connections to terrorism. My father was killed by terrorists. My grandmother was killed by terrorists. Both were martyred for the country. Stop your nonsense.

No insinuations there, unlike Irani. A direct hit that has no answer because, again, unlike Irani and the BJP, her statement was the plain, bald, unembellished truth based in recent history which no one has quite forgotten.

I do not think Irani will come back with a challenge soon because unlike her desire to gain brownie points with her mentor Narendra Modi, Priyanka's responses were not for any one's benefit but her own.

It amuses me how today's BJP leaders make themselves look like fools in their eagerness to do Modi's bidding at any cost. Whatever it tries, the BJP has not been able to annihilate the Rajiv Gandhi branch of the family though they have succeeded somewhat in rendering Maneka Gandhi and her son completely irrelevant – though from time to time, Varun Gandhi's undeniable roots assert themselves and both his Nehru-Gandhi genes and early secularist moorings peep through.

The name ‘Gandhi' however, whoever of Nehru's descendants might carry it, is anathema to Modi's BJP and they have now clearly given up the idea of using a Gandhi to bring down a Gandhi, though not before Maneka had attempted, five years ago, to push her son for consideration as a potential chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

So had Smriti Irani, in fact. At least Varun Gandhi had a base in Uttar Pradesh, but all that Irani thought she needed for the job was proximity to Modi.

Five years ago, however, the Modi government was tapping everybody's phones with less sophisticated equipment, including that of their own ministers – and clearly, Irani was one of them. For it is common knowledge among BJP circles in Mumbai that Irani had told one BJP functionary that she could pull off that ambition because she could get the party top bosses to do anything for her.

I believed that boast because why else was someone who never went to college would be made Human Resources Development Minister and placed above the heads of highly-educated deans and vice chancellors and allowed to ruin universities and the education system?

But, I am told, this boast was picked up by the listeners and angered Modi and Shah no end. So she was demoted to the Textile Ministry and told in no uncertain terms that she need not look beyond Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

Of course, she managed to wrest the seat from Rahul Gandhi and clawed her way back up in Modi's favour, but with signs that the people of Amethi might already be regretting their decision, she evidently thinks she must now bare her claws again.

Priyanka Gandhi's 'Ladki hoon lad sakti hoon’ campaign has resonated with large sections of women and Irani might well be finding the ground slipping from under her feet. For Priyanka's fightback is genteel, civilised, grounded in self-confidence and positivity, unlike Irani's so far bad-natured, ugly fights rooted in negative sentiments and boorish behaviour.

In asking why Priyanka did not contest the polls if she was a girl who could fight back, I wonder if Irani has the intelligence to appreciate what Priyanka Gandhi is really doing for the women and her party in Uttar Pradesh. She is the undisputed leader of her party in the state and, unlike Irani, serves nobody's interests but her party’s and her own.

I sense an element of jealousy here – for Priyanka's superior political pedigree, education, speaking skills that pack more refinement and punch than Irani’s own ill-bred responses and a clear recognition that the next battle in Amethi, even if Rahul still contests the seat, will be between her and Priyanka Gandhi. And that she would be at a clear disadvantage for she would never be able to rise to the level of Priyanka's own refinement and civilised discourse.

Admittedly, the BJP, on the backfoot at this election in UP, has tried to bring in terrorism into the campaign and link the chief challenger Akhilesh Yadav to terrorists of all kinds. That has not quite washed with the masses, but now to try and turn that allegation on the Gandhis is not just laughable and over the top but also reeks of uncertainty about Uttar Pradesh and, above all, an unthought out, unintelligent statement that could have done nought but boomerang on both the BJP and Irani.

It must be excruciating to the BJP that they do not have a history and can boast of no sacrifices by any of their leaders for the nation. That is why, after all, they have been appropriating Congress leaders for themselves but not quite making the cut with public acceptance.

Irani can hardly say, “Nathuram Godse sacrificed himself for an Akhand Bharat,” and hope to win the election – for that will lead to immediate consolidation of all right-thinking people against the BJP.

Or what leg evoking Savarkar will stand on when he had called for the rape of women as a weapon of war and abused Chhatrapati Shivaji for returning the daughter-in-law of a Muslim general safe and sound to her family?

The BJP'S heroes are the nation's villains and in a UP that uses rape as a weapon of humiliation of lower caste women by Thakurs and other upper castes, it will immediately show up Priyanka Gandhi's campaign as far more rooted and further alienate the masses from the BJP.

Still, I do wish Irani and the other BJP leaders could exhibit a modicum of intelligence and refrain from bizarre statements that only show up their weaknesses. But then, intelligence and the current crop of BJP leaders seem mutually exclusive and that is so sad for both us and the BJP.

Views are personal