Shocked niece watches TV, prays for her uncle’s life

CHANDIGARH, MAY 20: When 35-year-old Mukta Chaudhry, a Panchkula resident, was celebrating the first anniversary of her maternal uncle Mah...

CHANDIGARH, MAY 20: When 35-year-old Mukta Chaudhry, a Panchkula resident, was celebrating the first anniversary of her maternal uncle Mahendra Chaudhry’s rule over Fiji on Friday morning, she found to her horror the news of the attempted coup in that country breaking.

“I got the shocking news on phone at around 10.30 in the morning from my brother in Rohtak, who in turn had been told by his friend,” said Mukta. “I could not believe it for a moment,” she said with tears in her eyes. Since then she has been glued to the television, watching and even recording almost all that’s being beamed.

Despite the fact that Fiji remains cut off from the rest of the world and almost all the phone lines in the country have snapped, Mukta managed to have a four-minute conversation on phone with her Mamiji

— Virmati, wife of Mahendra Chaudhry — at around 10.30 last night.

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“She told me that Mamaji was still in the captivity of the coup leader, George Speight. She had not spoken to him since he left home for the Parliament in the morning. She is a very brave lady and sounded quite confident that everything will be brought under control soon,” said Mukta.

Mahendra Chaudhary used to ring up Mukta almost every fortnight and the last time she spoke to him was on May 16 for about 10 minutes. Her father, Mahavir Singh, who stays at Bahujamalpur (the native place of the Fiji PM) in Rohtak district, had spoken to Mahendra Chaudhary on phone on Thursday.

“Papa said Mamaji had given no sign or hint on the phone about any political tension in Fiji and was rather in a very good mood. He had even said that he would be visiting India in October this year. In fact, my father had organised a yagna in our native village on the occasion of the first anniversary of Mahendra uncle’s rule in Fiji, yesterday,” said Mukta.

She showed photographs of her family with the PM taken during his visit to India in September 1997 on an official tour as a leader of the opposition in Parliament.

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“I just pray to God to save the life of my uncle who has never even thought of doing any harm to anybody, forget about actually doing it,” said Mukta, who broke down several times during the conversation.

Bhal Singh, husband of Mukta, who works as a project director with the public relations wing of the Haryana government, said that now since the Fiji army had intervened, the situation would get normal soon.

“I am waiting for the much awaited call from Mamiji that everything has been sorted out and my Mamaji has been released, and I know that the call will come very soon,” said a very optimistic Mukta.