'If you talk about politics from the perspective of a vocation, then you would put a price on public service. The fact that you can serve a country of 1.4 billion people is in itself a privilege,' says Smriti Irani 
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'If you talk about politics from the perspective of a vocation, then you would put a price on public service. The fact that you can serve a country of 1.4 billion people is in itself a privilege,' says Smriti Irani Speaking at the Business Today's 'Most Powerful Women in Business' awards event, Smriti Irani, Women and Child Development Minister, said politics was not a profession but an opportunity for public service.
“If you talk about politics from the perspective of a vocation, then you would put a price on public service. The fact that you can serve a country of 1.4 billion people is in itself a privilege,” said Irani.
Saying that she didn’t look at her position as a lawmaker as a privilege, Irani said that given her roots she had to often balance between media and politics.
“I [often] think I belong to the media fraternity. And I oscillated between media and politics. So, rather politics should not be looked upon from a perspective of profit... From a perspective of competition among peers. It should rather it be looked upon as a [platform] where multiple voices can converge for the greater good,” asserted Irani.
On being asked by the managing editor of Business Today, Siddharth Zarabi, as to how she defeated Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi in his own pocket borough of Amethi, Irani said she won the election on her own merit.
“I was sent to [Amethi} because I was the best candidate to give the family a run for their money. And why do I say this? That’s because, in a victory or defeat, we start looking at a subset called gender!”
Irani observed that in this day and age, gender alone couldn’t be a benchmark for a person’s success.
“That’s why I said, “Can you define power? Our perspective towards power is so myopic that we look at it from our own perspective, bank balance and what we have,” observed Irani.
A woman is truly powerful when she makes a decision for herself because several times she is burdened with decision-making, said Irani.
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