She has Manu in her heart, Jaipal Reddy said of Smriti Irani.
Taking on Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani over the suicide of Hyderabad university scholar Rohith Vemula and other issues, senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy has described her as 'Manu Smriti Irani'.
"She is 'Manu Smriti Irani' because she has Manu in her heart," Mr Reddy.
Manu is believed to have proposed the four-rung caste system in the ancient times - his laws are encoded in the ancient legal text called "Manu Smriti".
Rohith Vemula's family has alleged that he was a victim of caste discrimination and committed suicide after Ms Irani and Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya had forced the University to punish him.
Mr Reddy was speaking at a meeting organised by Telangana Congress as part of 125th birth anniversary celebrations of B R Ambedkar. It was the Congress and its leaders who made Ambedkar the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, the former Union Minister said.
Ms Irani has contended that Mr Vemula's suicide not be seen as a Dalit versus non-Dalit issue. In a fiery speech in Parliament, she has said "No one uses the death of a child as a political tool".