Author:
Publication: Deccan Chronicle
Date: October 1, 2004
Jaya Bachchan, Samajwadi MP and
wife of superstar Amitabh Bachchan, has finally learnt the ropes of politics.
She has targeted the Congress for its step motherly treatment to UP and
accused the Gandhi family of betrayal.
At an election meeting held in Siddhaur
assembly segment in Barabanki district on Thursday, Jaya Bachchan said,
"Yeh doosri baar hai jab main aap se vote mangne aayi hoon. Pehli baar
jab Amitabh ji Allahabad se chunav lade the to maine unke live vote mange
the. Jin logon ne humko rajniti mein aage badhaya, unhone beech mein hi
hamara saath chhod diya. Saath tab chhoda jab hum taqleef mein the.
Yeh log hamesha dhokha dete hain.
(This is the second time that I am asking for your votes. The first time
was when Amitabh was contesting the elections in Allahabad. Those who brought
us in politics left us midway. They left us when we were in a crisis. They
are known to betray people.)"
Though Bachchan did not take names,
the reference was more than obvious. She then hit out at the Congress and
said that the centre was targeting Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on
the law and order issue and was deliberately not providing power to Uttar
Pradesh even on payment.
Yeh to wohi baat hui - jabra mare
roye na de, she added (This is like you hit someone on the jaw and then
dont even let him cry). Jaya Bachchan then praised Amar Singh and said,
Mere devar Amar Singh sach mein Thakur hain- jo kehte hain woh karte hain.
Aap Samajwadi Party ko vote dijiye - yeh log vade aur rishte nibhana jante
hain. (My brother-in-law is a real Thakur - he does what he says. Please
vote for the Samajwadi Party because these people know how to keep promises
and relations.)
This is the first time that a member
of the Bachchan family has spoken so strongly against the Gandhis. The
two families had been friends for over four and a half decades and it was
Amitabh Bachchans friendship with late Rajiv Gandhi that brought him into
politics in 1984 when he contested and won the parliamentary elections
from Allahabad.
Amitabh Bachchan later resigned
after he faced charges of kickbacks in the Bofors case. However, the relationship
between the Bachchans and the Gandhis came under severe strain nearly 6
years after Rajiv Gandhis assassination in 1991. In fact, after Gandhis
assassination, Bachchan was one of the two family friends- the other being
Captain Satish Sharma- on whom Sonia Gandhi and her children relied upon
for every major decision- political as well as non-political.
The rift between the Bachchans and
the Gandhis widened as the Bachchans grew close to Amar Singh who, incidentally,
was never in the good books of the Gandhis. However, the two families maintained
a respectable distance and never uttered a word about each other in public.
The only time that Bachchan spoke on the cracks in the relationship was
when he admitted in an interview to a private news channel that things
were no longer the same between the two families.
Jaya Bachchans public outburst against
the Gandhis on Thursday has expectedly kicked up a storm in political circles.
The Congress reacted sharply to her statements. UPCC spokesman Akhilesh
Pratap Singh said, The Gandhis do not need character certificates from
anyone - least of all the Bachchans.
