Recentley moved from education to textiles ministry, Smriti Irani to spend Rakhi with jawans at Siachen.
Highlights
- Nine women ministers to travel to border areas next week
- Smriti Irani to visit Siachen, world's highest battleground
- Government begins big campaign to mark 70 years of independence
Union minister Smriti Irani will travel next week to visit soldiers on the unforgiving Siachen Glacier, the highest battleground in the world.
The trip, scheduled for August 18, was sanctioned today by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar during a meeting with Ms Irani.
The army will be asked to make arrangements for her visit on Raksha Bandhan, the festival that sees men vowing to protect their sisters.
Sources say that apart from Ms Irani, who is the Textiles Minister, eight other women ministers from the BJP will travel to border area in the North East, Rajasthan and Kashmir to celebrate Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi with jawans.
The government has begun a fortnight-long celebration to mark 70 years of independence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday began the program with a visit to the birthplace in Madhya Pradesh of freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad. As soon as parliament wraps this session on Friday, BJP lawmakers are to travel to different parts of the country to campaign for unity. In their constituencies, they are meant to familiarize voters with the top schemes of the government. And on Independence Day, they have been instructed to ride on two-wheelers carrying large flags.