Uma, giftwrapped by Cong

So the sanyasin is out of prison and the BJP is liberated. The Hubli judicial magistrate has allowed the application filed in ’02 by the additional public prosecutor, withdrawing the cases against Uma Bharati and 21 others. If there is one party that should look for a place to hide, it should be the Congress. Twice, it filed applications for withdrawal of all cases—first the S M Krishna government and the new one, too, as recently as this June. But then the law caught up with a man called Shibu Soren and someone in the Congress (who, we may never know) came up with a harebrainwave: let’s reverse our stand, let’s score a self-goal, let’s put the sanyasin in jail, even wrap her in the Tricolour. Make it look as if her party is leading the country’s second freedom struggle.

For the BJP, it’s as good as it gets. It has clutched with piteous glee even the tiniest straws that have come its way — as for instance the imagined slight caused by the PM’s ‘‘handling’’ of its budget memorandum. Did he fling it onto the table or did he place it gently became a key question of national politics as the Budget slipped by, undebated. But, more importantly, as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Bharati was a monumental embarrassment to her party—and one that was growing bigger by the day. From police officers holding yagnas to a coterie that worshipped the ground beneath her feet, the state is in a mess. Good riddance to Uma is good politics for the party.

And now with the Maharashtra elections looming large, many big plans to cash in on the sanyasin’s maltreatment are afoot. Top leaders have courted arrest, Bharati herself has spoken about a yatra from Hubli to Jallianwalla Bagh, to create “awareness about the national flag”. Whether such a yatra will help the BJP perhaps only Pramod Mahajan can answer. A word of caution, though: these are times when people are looking to their leaders to improve their quality of life, to help them access the fruits of economic growth. That was the message of the general elections and from the evidence, it’s unlikely that Maharashtra will think otherwise.

There is also the power play that will inevitably kick in should Bharati miss her Bhopal Bungalow even as her successor Babulal Gaur has indicated that he plans to stay. This could turn out to be a headache for the BJP. The party high command would like nothing more than to use Uma Bharati on its own terms. As for the Congress, let it wipe some egg from its face and look in the mirror.