DHAKA: India’s human resource development minister Smriti Irani has sought to settle the controversy over her educational qualifications by requesting her critics to ‘judge me by my work’.

Smriti said on Thursday morning, ‘Extraneous circumstances have been created to divert my mind from the work I have been assigned to do. I will humbly request all of you to judge me by my work’.

She also said, ‘I have been judged by my organization for my capacity to deliver’, reports NDTV.

At 38, the popular TV actor turned politician is the youngest member of prime minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet.

The BJP leader has been attacked by the rival Congress first over what its general secretary Ajay Maken called a lack of qualification to head the education ministry, and then over alleged discrepancies in her election affidavits.

‘What a Cabinet of Modi? HRD Minister (Looking after Education) Smriti Irani is not even a graduate! Look at her affidavit at ECI site pg 11 (sic)!’ Maken had tweeted on Tuesday as Irani took charge of her ministry.

BDST: 1650 HRS, MAY 29, 2014