Mallika Sarabhai, danseuse and independent candidate from Gandhinagar, feels that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s development claims are hollow. In a conversation with Sreelatha Menon, Sarabhai says she is fighting to win.
You call your fight symbolic. What is the point if you do not win?
I have never called my fight only symbolic. I have said symbols are also important. I am fighting to win, and I am fighting clean and above board.
What will you do if you lose? Will you give up politics?
Of course not. I am in this for keeps.
People in Gujarat usually vote for those who have worked at the grassroots level. Is your work in villages enough to gain you this recognition? Do you think you should have done more?
More than 25 years? That’s how long I have worked on grassroots issues. Not with a political life in mind, that is true. And we shall see how things roll out!
People in Gujarat see Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a symbol of progress and development and a corruption-free administration. How true is this?
I have visited all the villages of my constituency over the last 15 days, and many urban slums. In close to 70 per cent, there are no toilets, no place to wash, bad roads, no access to buses, no jobs. There is no understanding of schemes that they can access, and no information is forthcoming.
The Special Economic Zones have robbed them of land — they gave their farms at throwaway prices, and the industrialists to whom they were given have resold them at hefty profits. Farmers in Indroda, in Gandhinagar, claim the government has cheated them. I have promised to get a legal view on what the situation is and them try to see what can be done.
There are job losses in diamond and textile units in Gujarat. Neither the Centre nor the state has done anything to help the workers. What should be done in this regard?
I think we need to completely rethink the employment paradigm. Much more emphasis needs to be given to micro industry and credit for this, and training need to be put in place. One additional advantage here is that unlike when a giant company fails, here they are dependent primarily on themselves.