 |
||
|
||
|
||
Q: So where do you go from here?
A: I do not want anything. I sometimes think my party has given
me so much. Neither was I a contender for a ministerial berth in
the last expansion, nor will I be in the next expansion. I am
very satisfied.
Q: You have had a great past in the BJP. But where will the party
lead you to now?
A: I am a Lok Sabha MP. Main kissi pad ki mohtaj nahi (I am not
desperate for any post). I do not need the medal of a ministry. I
have proved my worth, done everything so a ministry is the last
thing I am desperate for. When I was chief minister, I do not
recall a night when I slept for more then four hours. I am
completely satisfied with my performance. So when people say that
you have got nothing I feel very strange. After all they (the
BJP) have given me so much. I was the first in everything, if you
count the posts I have held. I was the first women general
secretary, first lady spokesperson, first women CM of the BJP.
Everything else will be a repeat performance now.
Q: So how do you feel from being a topper to be suddenly told you
are not part of the class anymore?
A: No there is nothing like this. It is the Prime Minister's
prerogative.
Q: Has the PM spoken to you about a Cabinet berth?
A: No. The day I went to ask him about which seat to resign from,
he told me clearly to retain my Lok Sabha seat. People who link
my resignation from the Vidhan Sabha with the expansion of the
Cabinet are wrong. I had been given time at 10 p.m. to see the
PM. The expansion happened later. The only consideration was our
numbers in Parliament. He told me you leave the assembly. I told
him on my own that I do not want a ministry.
Q: What about factionalism in the BJP. Is it still a party with a
difference or differences?
A: Well, now it is a party with differences. We need some
introspection.
Q: Your omission from the Cabinet, is it a signal to women?
A: No, no. There is no omission or signals to women. If I am
not there, it will be somebody else.
Q: Weren't you the feminine face of the BJP? So isn't the BJP
behaving like a very macho party?
A: (Laughs) There will be some other feminine face. I am not
indispensable. We have a lot of women. Somebody else will
benefit.
Q: Have you encountered any chauvinism in the BJP?
A: No, even if I have to scratch my mind I cannot remember.
NEVER. All capital letters!
Q: Is there a conspiracy against you in the party.
A: People tell me this could be a conspiracy to oust me from
national politics. But I know Vajpayeeji and Advaniji and my
heart refuses to believe this. Offering me the Delhi chief
ministership was a last-ditch attempt to salvage the situation.
Q: So you think your competence worked against you?
A: I was brought in at a crucial juncture. At a time of crisis.
It was a matter of satisfaction and honour for me. If at this
hour of crisis my leadership asks me to lead, though I am
reluctant to do so, I would still go since they are making me a
general for this battle.
Q: But is a general who has lost treated like this? You were
there for only 40 days. What miracle could have you conjured?
A: Even I knew people were not expecting miracles from me but
they wanted to benefit from my credibility and popularity.
Q: You have said that the BJP defeated the BJP. Please elaborate?
A: I said that because even in this desperate situation if we had
all worked together without sleeping, eating, drinking, with a do-
or-die spirit under my leadership, things would have been
different. If we had forgotten the past, if all the leaders had
said - we are behind her, you know Sushma Swaraj, please entrust
Delhi to her. I always say Madhya Pradesh is an example. Things
were pretty bad for the Congress. The Central leadership made all
the factional leaders come together. Arjun Singh, Scindia and
Digvijay exerted their influence. That's how the party improved
and retained its base.
Q: So what really happened?
A: Rather than everyone working together, the opposite happened.
We could not present a united face. Our voters were
disillusioned by our in-fighting.
Q: After the elections results in Delhi, former chief ministers,
Sahib Singh Verma and Madan Lal Khurana could not stop smiling
even in front of TV cameras. Did it hurt?
A: Why only me? It hurt a lot of workers. But what can I do
about it?
Q: The attempts to link you with Romesh Sharma which were
circulated by your own party?
A: The hurt I have undergone in 21 days in Delhi I haven't felt
in 21 years of politics. I am a victim of my own sincerity.
Q: How would you have handled the Fire controversy as I&B
Minister?
A: I have not seen the film but it depends on the depiction. What
message are you conveying? If you show the lesbian relationship
as unnatural, it is all right. But, if you are glorifying it, or
somehow or the other justifying it that’s not right.
|
||
|
||
|
||