Divine intervention

But now she was chief minister, of a state that begged for development. However, Uma believed the state8217;s destiny lay in god8217;s small creatures, that its cities and villages must be awash with godliness and virtue, and she set about changing it with religious zeal.

She took oath of office under the spiritual glare of a 100 ash-smeared sadhus and sants, dug khunds in the stately grounds of the CM8217;s residence for havans and yagnas, declared her government8217;s policy for the five Gs of gau, gobar, gau mutra, Gurumurthy promoting his unique socio-economic model of swadeshi development and Govindacharya RSS ideologue and architect of the Hindu model of social engineering; and the five Js of jal, jan, jameen, jungle and janwar.

Then there were the five advisers8212;former journalist Atul Jain, her favoured nephews Sidharth and Rahul Singh Lodhi, RSS pracharak Anil Dave, who now has an eerie resemblance to Sangh ideologue, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, and former school teacher and son of a BJP MP, Shailendra Sharma.

The initial euphoria of a Hindutva renaissance over, it was time to blend vishwa dharma with raj dharma. So, even if crores of rupees from the Animal Husbandry department were now prioritised to set up gaushalas, and the cow economy relying heavily on the Shrimad Bhagvad, Bharati decided to take the bull by its horns.

She declared her intention to build roads, give jobs, provide electricity, send children to school and invite industry to a barren industrial-zone state. Her key advisers swung into action to put in motion the administration wheel, and as many as 300 officers in the IAS and IPS, were transferred in the last eight months, some even thrice.

But instability in the administration was of no concern to Bharati. As a free-spirited sanyasin, she had no time for rules and rigor. While she may have scored some karmic points for appointing nine women police inspectors as station heads during the nine-day 8216;8216;Gupt Navratris8217;8217; to 8216;8216;symbolize the nine different incarnations of the female deity8217;8217;, Bharati even managed to pull off some reforms from the ground.

Her critics admit her revised menu for the mid-day meal scheme got thousands of children back to school. With an annual budget of Rs 200 crore, the scheme saw an 11 per cent increase in attendance in the 89,000 schools, with almost 78 lakh kids going to school.

Bharati8217;s unconventional attempt to bring governance directly to the people endeared her to the public, but her erratic demands also eroded her achievement record. For instance, Bharati8217;s road show was a disaster, and she had herself to blame. Any work on MP8217;s roads would have been an improvement but the sadhvi put impractical deadlines on the MP Road Development Corp to complete roads before time, to show-off her leadership skills. For instance the Bhopal-Sagar route became motorable for the CM8217;s journey on time, today it is almost washed away by the rains.

But, even as industrial polices were being announced and economic zones being earmarked, the sadhvi in Uma soon became restless. And as her reign in Bhopal became increasingly controversial because of the near-collapse of her floating administration, her unpredictable and autocratic demands, her colleagues8217; resentment of her coterie that enjoyed extra-constitutional powers, the end looked near.

On top of it all, her personal life came under intense scrutiny. Apart from her temperamental brother who often embarrassed her in public with outrageous allegations, Bharati had to explain herself for daring to allow suspended BJP ideologue, Govindacharaya living in her house.

Thus, the gods looked after the sadhvi in the end, the tri-colour case came in time for Uma to go back to the wind and air.