After Smriti Irani’s Amethi defeat, NITI Aayog director recalls her ‘misbehaviour’, deletes X post later

In the now deleted post, Urvashi Prasad alleged that the former MP had ‘thrown her out of office’ & that her behaviour as public servant and woman is ‘nothing less than abhorrent’.

NITI Aayog Director Urvashi Prasad | Photo: X, @urvashi01

New Delhi: NITI Aayog Director Urvashi Prasad Tuesday accused former Amethi MP Smriti Irani of “misbehavior”, describing her as arrogant and having an attitude that is “nothing less than abhorrent”. Prasad alleged that Irani had thrown her out of her office when she met her to offer some suggestions.

In a now deleted post on X, the director of the Union government-run think-tank wrote that she had experienced Irani’s “sheer arrogance” first hand in 2019 when she had visited her office to offer suggestions to improve the performance of the ministry of women and child development — headed by Irani.

“I hope this defeat will teach you to be more humble if you do serve in the government,” Prasad wrote in the post.

She further wrote about the former MP’s “spectacular defeat” and added that her “behaviour as a public representative and more so as a woman was nothing less than abhorrent”.

Asserting that “careers are made and destroyed by the people”, she alleged that Irani had, perhaps, “ironically” thought that Prasad had come to ask for favours.

“Had heard from many people but had never paid heed to it, till I faced your sheer arrogance first hand in 2019, where you misbehaved and literally threw me out of your office where I had ironically come to offer some suggestions on how to improve the performance of the Women and Child Ministry… you for some reason and perhaps based on the counsel of your PS had assumed I was seeking a favour or role with you, which I definitely wasn’t,” she wrote.

Prasad has been Director of NITI Aayog since January 2023, and was also declared among the 100 most influential women in India for 2023 and 2024.

Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani, contested from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi, and was defeated by Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma Tuesday by a margin of 1.67 votes.

ThePrint reached both Irani and Prasad via phone calls and text messages. This report will be updated if and when responses are received.