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Dancing to her own tune 04 March, 2017 02:24:40 PM, Manas Dasgupta
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After Mallika Sarabhai announced she
would take on the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna
Advani in Gandhinagar, V.R. Krishna Iyer, former judge of the
Supreme Court, wrote to her: “Values must matter in politics and
public life. Enemy number one of the country today is communalism
and who opposes this force is a true patriot in shaping our grand
tryst with destiny.”
The 50-something dancer and daughter
of the “father of India’s space programme, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, says
she is in the poll arena precisely for this reason: to uphold values
in public life. The selection of Gandhinagar was conscious. “That
itself signifies the values I stand for,” she asserts. It was also
because of those same values that she refused to join any political
party and is contesting as an Independent. Ms. Sarabhai does not see
much difference between one political party and the other. “All
parties behave as if democracy is of politicians, by politicians,
for politicians, pushing ‘people’ to the background,” she says. “I
want to re-establish the people’s voice.” She bristles at the
suggestion that hers is only a “symbolic fight” and claims that she
is a “very serious candidate.” But she says winning is not her only
goal: “I want to establish transparency in public life and wish my
rivals too adopt the same principles so that we have a level playing
ground.”
Ms. Sarabhai belongs to an affluent
family, but she will not contest the elections using family funds.
“I plan to collect Rs 25 lakh, the limit set for Independents by the
Election Commission, from public donations which alone will be used
for election expenses.”
For the sake of transparency, she has
created a website where every donation received and expenditure made
will be posted regularly for public viewing. “I will stop accepting
donations the moment it reaches the ceiling limit,” she says.
Her main thrust will be on a
door-to-door campaign. “I know I won’t be allowed free movement;
that hurdles will be placed and there may even be attempts to
liquidate me,” she says. The roughing up of Medha Patkar, the
Narmada Bachao Andolan leader, still haunts her. Persona non grata
in Gujarat, Ms. Patkar turned up at a gathering organised by Ms.
Sarabhai at the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram soon after the 2002 communal
riots. “It was open to all and Ms. Patkar happened to be there. As a
true Indian who believes in Atithi Devo Bhavo (Guests are like god),
I could not turn her out. But this has made me a common enemy of
both the BJP and the Congress,” she says. Hooligans of both parties had manhandled Ms. Patkar and her inside the ashram precincts. Besides, her open criticism of Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s “communal politics” has also made her an enemy number of the Sangh Parivar. But nothing is going to deter her from “speaking the truth.” (Courtesy The Hindu)
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