The new minister of minority affairs (MMA) Smriti Irani is a familiar face for the Parsis. Not only is the 46-year-old married to Zubin Irani, a Zoroastrian agriculturist from Dahanu, she graced the Iranshah Udvada Utsav in 2017. In 2019 she defeated Rahul Gandhi, the grandson of Feroze and Indira Gandhi to win the Amethi parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh. Smriti was the youngest member in the 2019 Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) council of ministers.
Above, Kersi Deboo with Smriti Irani; Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
The former television star currently also holds the portfolio for the women and child development ministry. She replaces MMA Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi whose term as a member of the Rajya Sabha expired this July. With Naqvi’s resignation, there is not a single Muslim in the union council of ministers or within the ruling BJP members of parliament or the state legislative assemblies.
Vice chairperson of the National Minorities Commission (that functions under the ministry of minority affairs) Kersi Deboo told Parsiana on July 10 that he was going to see Smriti in the coming week "to greet her and discuss about the Jiyo Parsi project.” Dr Shernaz Cama whose organization Parzor spearheaded the project told Parsiana,"We at Jiyo Parsi are very grateful to Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi for his help and support both to Parzor and Jiyo Parsi over many years. We wish him health and happiness in the years ahead and also would like to say Eid Mubarak.”