Uma Bharti possesses an uncanny knack for running her campaign aground on issues peripheral to these elections and Digvijay Singh is never one to miss an opportunity. From the Hanuman birthday cake to a dinner invitation for bureaucrats, much has happened in the past. Now the issue at hand is far more serious but certainly as peripheral to this campaign, and it is threatening to overshadow — in precisely the fashion Digvijay would want — the Prime Minister’s speech focussing on the lack of development in the state. The event in question took place at that very rally when Uma Bharti called a woman onto the stage and introduced her to the Prime Minister. According to Uma Bharti, in an incident that took place well over nine years ago, the woman — a Dalit — was stripped, molested and paraded naked in a village after her husband’s murder. The woman touched Vajpayee’s feet while Uma introduced her as the embodiment of the oppression and maltreatment of women during Digvijay’s rule. The next day Digvijay issued a statement objecting to a rape victim being produced on the dias. He further said that the legal aspect of the issue was being examined for further action. Stung, Uma Bharti rebutted the allegations. But in doing so she has only ended up getting further entangled in the issue. Today, in a signed article in a vernacular newspaper, Uma Bharti wrote in her defence that she came to know that the woman was a rape victim from the statements issued by Congress leaders and that she had never once referred to her as a rape victim. But as a journalist pointed out at a press conference this evening, the BJP’s own chargesheet issued earlier in this campaign makes specific mention of the case and states that the woman was raped. The woman, Uma says in her article, is like Gangajal for her and is worthy of worship. ‘‘Like Ayodhya is the representative of my Hindu faith,’’ Uma writes, similarly this woman ‘‘is the representative of the insult to womanhood. The strength with which I participated in the Ayodhya struggle, with that same strength I shall fight for people like .(the victim) and free them from maladministration.’’ Digvijay Singh, Uma Bharti writes, should go and apologise to the woman for the kind of administration he runs and should stop Congressmen from terming her a rape victim. Today, at a press conference, Uma Bharti said the decision to let the victim appear on stage was not planned but happened on the spur of the moment. The victim, she said, had come to meet her at her house before the rally and so Uma decided to take her to meet the Prime Minister. Asked how this was possible in view of the SPG security, Uma said that this was the whole truth. She further added that the attempt to rake up this issue was another one of Digvijay Singh’s dirty tricks. Alleging that Digvijay Singh will go to any lengths to deflect attention from a debate on development, she said, as he has in the past resorted to saying he drinks cow urine, now he is using this issue.
