Smriti Irani is an Indian politician, television actress, former model and producer. She is the youngest person in the Modi Cabinet whose political career started with her joining the BJP in 2003. Recently appointed as the Minister of Human Resource Development, here’s some quick facts about the 38 year old Smriti Irani.

QUICK FACTS

1) Smriti Irani came from a Delhi-Bengali lower middle class family where she was the eldest of three sisters.

2) Smriti worked to support her family from a very early age. At the age of 16 she apparently earned Rs.200 for promoting a beauty product.

3) She wanted to become a journalist at one point but gave up on that dream on being rejected after an interview by a journo.

4) At a point she even worked as a cleaning staff at McDonald’s where she cleaned floors and cleared tables.

5) In 1997, Smriti Irani participated in the Miss India pageant, where she was the finalist.

6) Smriti Irani is also the master of several languages as she is fluent with Hindi, English, Gujarati, Bengali and Marathi.

7) In 2010, Smriti was appointed as the National Secretary of the BJP and All India President of the BJP’s women’s wing, BJP Mahila Morcha.

8) Her life changing moment was when she bagged the role of Tulsi in Ekta Kapoor’s Kyunki Saas bhi Kabhi Bahu thi.

9) In 2001 she got married to Zubin Irani, a Parsi who was previously married to model-coordinator Mona Irani and had daughter Shanelle with his first wife.

10) While other politicians made shockingly insensitive comments following the many rape cases in India, Smriti advocated capital punishment for rapists.