Union Minister Smriti Irani was trolled after she allegedly made a statement on a news channel's LIVE debate. Irani during an interaction with Aaj Tak journalist Anjana Om Kashyap said that the Modi government had provided ration to 80 crore citizens in India, but the channel displayed a ticker that read as "80 crore families".
The goof up however led social media users trolling Irani instead. Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill reacted saying, "We should immediately start CAA exercise to locate our lost citizens coz Census has been lying that India’s population is 135+ Cr whereas PM says India has 600 Cr voters & as per Smriti Irani Indi- has 80 Cr families (x4 = 320 cr people); It will be Anti-National not to find them."
Another user commented, "Even if a family has just 3 members, it will come to 240 crs and India's total population is just 136 crores. At least make your lies little reasonable. Lockdown time is being used productively by Smriti Irani in doing PhD in stupidity."
However, another Twitter user provided clarification stating Smriti's statement was misquoted by the channel's ticker. He wrote, "Okay. So @smritiirani said "80 crore citizens". Aaj Tak said "80 crore families". And the whole eco-system blamed it on Smriti Irani."
Here are some more reactions.
This isn’t the first time Smriti has been trolled for her poor choice of statement in the media. In 2018, she quoted an article to announce that the travel time between Srinagar and Leh has been reduced to just 15 minutes. Netizens pointed out that the tunnel project will reduce travel time of crossing Zojila pass from 3.5 hours to 15 minutes, and not the distance between Srinagar and Leh.
Besides that she has also been labelled as a liar by many on the micro blogging site for faking her education qualifications over the years.
