BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh ex-chief minister Uma Bharti, known for her unconventional style, has decided to share her life story in short through micro-blogging site Twitter.
And going by the first two revelations made in a series of 41 tweets, disclosure of some interesting and explosive internal political happenings is expected between July 13 (Guru Poornima) and August 11 (Raksha Bandhan)—the time duration set by Bharti for posting her ‘short autobiography’.
In the series of tweets on Sunday night, Bharti narrated how Union Home Minister Amit Shah – then the BJP national president – saved her from being axed from the Union cabinet (in September 2017) and how a tweet on controversial Haryana MLA Gopal Kanda, though Bharti did not name him, cost her the post of party’s national vice-president.
Bharti, who has taken up a liquor ban campaign in Madhya Pradesh and also sent a letter to BJP national president J.P. Nadda to ensure a uniform ‘pro-people’ liquor policy in all BJP ruled states, said on Sunday that she feels suffocated and uncomfortable if she can’t say what is in her heart and not walk towards her objectives.
Claiming that she had denied permission to two big publications to publish her autobiography, Bharti said she will post ‘a short autobiography’ on Twitter to let people know why she had traversed from Ganga Sagar to stand before a liquor shop with cow-dung in hand (reference to her hurling dung at a liquor shop in Orchha on June 14 to protest the shop being located near main entry to temple town).
How Amit Shah saved her from being axed from the Union cabinet?
In the series of tweets, Bharti said that she would share some special episodes right away. She then went on to narrate how her decision of letting her ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation to submit an affidavit in the Supreme Court (in June 2016) regarding power projects on Himalaya, Ganga and other rivers, against the decision of the government, caused her to lose her portfolios. In September 2017, Bharti was divested of the ministry and made Union minister for drinking water and sanitation.
She said that the three ministries of energy, environment and water resources could not come to a consensus on the issue although a common affidavit was to be submitted after consensus and consent of cabinet secretary and prime minister’s office. Bharti said experts felt that the proposed 72 power projects were an environmental threat for River Ganga, Himalayas and the entire country. “I and my officers devoted to Ganga presented in the affidavit in (Supreme) Court without consulting anyone. The energy and environment ministries and the Trivendra Rawat-led (BJP) government in Uttarakhand expressed their disagreement to this affidavit. Then the court rejected the affidavit after consultation with the Union government. It (the affidavit) is still a property of the court and probably the central government has not been able to file a new affidavit to the contrary,” Bharti tweeted.
She then went on to say, “I could have been dismissed from the cabinet, but at least perennial Ganga was saved. Amit Shah, who was then our national president, has always supported Ganga's perennial flow. It was his intervention that I was not dismissed, but my departments were changed. This much had to happen.” She also said that it was in consonance with Amit Shah’s opinion that she fought the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
How she got dropped as BJP national vice-president?
Bharti then went on to narrate her role in the controversy related to government formation in Haryana in October 2019 and how it cost her the post of vice-president of the party. She did not name controversial Haryana Lokhit Party MLA Gopal Kanda anywhere in her tweets. It was her tweet opposing BJP taking Kanda’s support to form the government in Haryana that caused the BJP to finally change its decision.
“Haryana incident is well known. What was to happen would have been like flowing of a dirty nullah into the Ganga which is like life journey of austere people like (PM Narendra) Modi ji and (Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal) Khattar ji. I was the national vice-president. Party discipline expected that I should have gone to Delhi and expressed my objection in person to the national president. But there was not enough time. I was on a journey in UttarKashi and Gangotri and this person (Kanda) had reached Delhi on a chartered flight. So taking the route available, I tweeted. Then the media erupted in a debate citing that ‘your national VP has said so’ and the party had to change its decision. Our government was formed in Haryana and the reputation of the party was also saved,” Bharti said.
She added: “Then what had to happen, happened. There was indiscipline. So when the new national executive committee was announced (in September 2020), I was a member, but not an office bearer. But I have no sad feelings. My leader is Narendra Modi ji and it will remain so. For me, Jagat Prakash Nadda ji is respected as the chief of our organization. Now I have launched a campaign against liquor in Madhya Pradesh, which is in accordance with the party policies and it is my request that all BJP-ruled states should have uniform liquor policies.”
Bharti then went on to announce that she would share important episodes of her life from her birth till present within next one month (Guru Poornima to Raksha Bandhan). “So it is a request to all of you to consider it as the report card of my life and find time to read it.”
