I am quite surprised with some of the things Modi is doing: Shazia Ilmi
Not so long ago, Shazia Ilmi, was a prominent face in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Her exit from the party — not surprisingly — caused quite a flutter even as the AAP's political adversaries — from the Congress, BJP to the Samajwadi Party (SP) are trying to rope her in. In this interview with Monobina Gupta, the former AAP activist weighs her political options and her future plans.
Why did things get so bad with the AAP?The top leaders lost touch with reality. After Arvind became CM, someone like me -- I couldn't talk to him. I couldn't meet him for 6/7 months. Arvind was surrounded by three-four people — everybody knows who they are. Arvind listens to and trusts only a few people.
Do you plan to join any other political party?AAP won't give me a position where I can showcase my talent. I don't mind joining any other party which will give me this opportunity. Not just joining a party for the sake of joining a party. Then I could have joined any political outfit.
Barring Arvind and Manish -- most of AAP, BJP, Congress and Samajwadi Party -- would love me join them. A lot of things about the BJP do not inspire me. But I like what Mohan Bhgwat recently said. I listened to his speech carefully. He said that whatever is happening in the Islamic countries has to be assessed in light of provocation from the West. This is the first time that someone in the RSS made such an observation. I don't think the traditional binary 'RSS bad-CPM good' holds true any longer. I want to intervene in public policies. You can do that well in government. If I can get a decent position in any party — I will do a good job of my assignment.
What's your assessment of Modi?Modi's mention of Mahatma Gandhi is very important to me. He is balancing the core development constituency and the Hindutva thing very, very well. He invokes Gandhi to a bunch of cadres who do not like Gandhi — in fact blame him for a lot of things. I think he is taking up cudgels against the hate-mongering divisive lobby in the RSS.That to me is a welcome development. I would be looking at this very carefully. Maybe it's all rhetoric — but some mould is being broken.
Could be symbolism — but for the PM to talk about sanitation is something. I am actually quite surprised and impressed with some of the things Modi is doing. I will not say all of RSS — but there's one stream in the RSS which is anti-Muslim and believes in divisive politics. Nobody takes them on. If Modi can take them on, I applaud him. Like they say — zahar se zahar kaat ta hain. Modi will have to walk the talk. People will look for results.There's a problem with his allowing people like Sakshi Maharaj, Yogi Adityanath to continue. Modi is walking a tightrope. Curbing inflation is Modi's biggest problem. That's where Arvind Kejriwal's advantage lies.
So, which political party would you seriously consider joining? I am weighing all possibilities. Two-three parties have been actively talking to me. I think BJP and Congress have very similar features — look at their policies. Somebody said BJP is being intolerant, I told them — what did you do with Taslima Nasreen? And there were riots in Gujarat even in Madhav Singh Solanki's time.
Would you like to play a decisive role in formulating gender policies?Gender is my commitment. I believe there should be a task force of women which should sit with the law ministry and change the conventional language on gender. With AAP it's been the end of a chapter and it's not been very easy to come to terms with it. They were my own — I couldn't make out what happened. There has been no closure. Deeply political — deeply personal. I am here to stay.