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Shortly
after meeting Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee last Thursday to explain
her resignation, Uma Bharati spoke to deputy
editor Swapan Dasgupta. Excerpts:
Q. What made you decide to resign from the Lok Sabha?
A.
What
really set me thinking was my experience with the casual employees' agitation
in Bhopal. I pleaded with my state party leader to issue a statement that
if I were arrested the BJP would launch a statewide agitation. He said
he would do it but didn't. Then, after I came to Delhi, Advaniji told
Venkaiah Naidu to send a team of party MPs to investigate the matter.
But another very senior leader told Venkaiah not to do anything. He said,
'Uma raises these frivolous issues, don't take any notice.' The team never
went.
I was extremely
hurt. I concluded I would have to search for a different route. I remembered
my experience between 1984 and 1989 when I was not an MP, only an ordinary
BJP worker. What I managed to do for the poor then, I haven't managed
in my 11 years as an MP.
It's the
political system that's failing. All parties want to be instant hits.
Our leaders and parties have become a joke. Elections are a choice between
the bad and worse.
Not being
an MP I can't build schools. But I can give izzat and self-respect to
the poor. Like Laloo Yadav has in Bihar.
Q. You've
left politics, yet you remain in the BJP ...
A.
There is a reason. In Bundelkhand, I inspired thousands of poor people
to join the BJP. If I resigned from the party, it would be letting them
down and confusing them. For me politics is BJP. I can't join any other
party.
Q. But
with this action haven't you proved you are temperamental?
A.
If I am temperamental, it's with friends. But I am not unstable. My commitment
is to the poor. I am not changing my direction; I am changing my route.
When I first
came to Parliament, I was determined to fight for the poor. Then I got
involved in the Ayodhya movement, with Hindutva. The VHP wasn't affected
by this association because it was outside politics. But those of us in
politics like Advaniji, Murli Manohar Joshi and I got on the wrong side
of a very ideological media. I have faced caste bias, class bias and gender
bias.
Q. Are
you referring to the label ...
A.
Don't even mention it. It may be a laughing matter for city folks, but
I work in the villages. There it carries a different meaning. It suggests
something disgusting. It detracts from my real work. When you project
someone people start viewing you in the light of that projection. A problem
arises between your appeal and your projection.
Q. It
is said that you are too ambitious.
A.
If you keep saying I am angry because I wasn't made minister, then everything
I do gets coloured by that perception. It's not that I don't want to be
something. But I can't do chamchagiri of the leaders. After I quit the
Government in January, I have never sought any other post.
Q. Haven't
problems arisen on account of speculation over your personal life?
A.
When I was 16, I told Anandamoyee Ma that I wanted to take sanyas. She
told me to wait till I am 25. Rajmata Scindia took me to Pejawar Swami
in Udupi in 1989. He told me that I must first become an MP and then decide.
I won and
immediately got involved in the Ayodhya movement. I came in touch with
Bhaurao Deoras (of the RSS). He introduced me to this BJP leader. I found
him very intelligent and I thought he was Mr Right. I told him so. He
didn't tell me anything and till today he hasn't told me he wanted to
marry me. He told Advaniji and Bhaurao.
After the
1991 election, Advaniji told me that the person wanted to marry me. I
said I did too. I consulted my elder brother. My family always wanted
to arrange my marriage. They tried twice. In February 1987, I actually
had to turn away the baratis from the door. So when I said I was getting
married they were happy.
Then Bhaurao
called me. He said, 'I see Indira Gandhi in you and I see Deen Dayal Upadhyaya
in him. When you get married you will be very happy for two years and
then other things will come. But if you sacrifice that happiness both
of you can contribute so much to the nation.' That day I abandoned marriage
plans and chose sanyas.
Q. So,
how would you assess Uma Bharati?
A.
She has one big flaw. She decides something and expects people to follow
her. She is not one for team work. Then she allows emotions to prevail.
That's why I am what I am, where I am. One day I decide that politics
is not for me and I leave. Leaving many people in the lurch, crying.
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The
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INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 
