Barefoot Seshan kills Advani with kindness

In Tintoda, a tiny Thakur village about 20 km off Gandhinagar, with just about 40 per cent literacy, where most did not know what a CEC is, leave alone a Seshan, the crowds were impressed by his performance.In Jalud, he cancelled his public meeting because there had been a death in the village. In the BJP stronghold of Sardha, he was the picture of humility.

Till an hour before his arrival, a group of about 300 had crowded the meeting venue at Tintoda, under a lush banyan tree, simply out of curiosity. “Aa Seshan kon chhe?” asked tailor Navneet Kumar. Sarpanch Khodaji Thakur tried to explain, though not convincingly, since he too had recently been educated by Congress workers. But just after the National Anthem, and 20 minutes of speech, they were so taken up by the Dakshin Bharat Ka Sher’ that when he asked how many would vote for him, they all had hands in the air. “Newspapers are saying I have been made a bali ka bakra in front of Lal Krishna Advani. I am a Brahmin by birth, but I consider myself a Thakur by attitude,” he said, “Yeh Thakur ka vachan hai. I have accepted your pagdi’ and you have pledged your vote to me. On September 5, go to the polling booth as you would go to atemple and show the country ke thakur kabhi bali nahin hota, na hi kabhi bakra hota hai,” said Seshan. Broken Hindi, but words that brought spontaneous applause.

He spoke of mud tracks that needed to be made into roads, railway signals that needed to be constructed, dispensaries that needed medicines, schools that needed rework, people who needed jobs, and then said Advani had returned Rs 79 lakh from the Rs 2 crore he had got from the MPs’ fund. He spoke about the two storms at Kandla, asked the people which MP had come to share the sorrows of Gujarat and then ended disarmingly with, “Chhodiye na. I won’t say a word against Advani. He is a great man.”

But he did take another dig at Advani. He quoted from reports in local newspapers that had talked of human bombs having come into Gujarat for Advani and clarified he did not wish Advani ill. “I will pray to God nothing ever happens to Advani,” he said generously, at the same time telling the people that all security for him (Seshan) hadbeen withdrawn. Which, naturally, he did not mind as it gave him the chance of coming so close to the people.