Uma Bharati takes her yatra to cyberland

Midway through her long march to Ayodhya, Uma Bharati has just taken a detour to cyberspace. The sadvhi has launched a website, www.ramrotiy...

Midway through her long march to Ayodhya, Uma Bharati has just taken a detour to cyberspace. The sadvhi has launched a website, http://www.ramrotiyatra.com, to inform the world on a daily basis of her whereabouts and her actions.

‘‘At the moment the content is political but her ‘human side’ will also be highlighted,’’ said one of the eight webmanagers. ‘‘Umaji is a woman and already has blisters on her feet. She faces a lot of inconveniences on the way. If she permits we will project all this and more,’’ he said. The sanyasin has spent the last seven nights in tents and except for religious places on way will stay in tents till she reaches Ayodhya. Currently, the website has her profile and the web managers are likely to upload her photographs from the days she was a toddler and when she took to holding discourses.

The website also highlights Bharati’s views. For instance, despite her expulsion from the party she insists, ‘‘The BJP is my party, nobody can expel me. Instead if anyone was to be expelled, it should have been Advani for his Jinnah remarks.’’ She continues to target ‘‘rootless political managers and does not spare Atal Behari Vajpayee: ‘‘Some people compromised with ideology and became PM.’’

The site also contains details about the Ram Roti Yatra, which now traverses 20 km a day. Bharati has travelled about 250 km since she walked out of the BJP’s meeting that elected Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh on November 28. Former union minister and yatra-in-charge Prahlad Patel said the response to the march had been better than expected. ‘‘The yatra was not planned but things fell in order as it moved along,’’ he said.

Bharati’s supporters said she would announce her decision only after completing her yatra. She has got proposals to take up social issues in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal, according to Patel. She has received support from all quarters and will launch a social movement. She will begin from Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh where farmers and weavers have committed suicide.