The Ganga issue has brought firebrand BJP leader Uma Bharti closer to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. She called on Mrs Gandhi on Saturday at her 10, Janpath residence and was impressed after the meeting.
Ms Bharti is perhaps the first Sangh Parivar leader to go to 10, Janpath on the issue of the Ganga, especially with the plea that it should be declared a national river by law. The one-on-one meeting lasted over 20 minutes.
During the meeting, Ms Bharti expressed her desire to meet the Congress chief once again on this issue, to which the latter responded positively. She said if the government makes any contribution towards saving the Ganga, the credit for it would go to the UPA chairperson.
“I am overwhelmed that Sonia Gandhi has kept the issue of the Ganga separate from politics and has given me time. She read out portions from a book by Jawaharlal Nehru and told me that her family has faith in the Ganga. She assured me that she will talk to the Prime Minister and (Jairam) Ramesh regarding my demands, and also ask them to meet me,” Ms Bharti said.
“Four months ago, I was disturbed to see the state of the Ganga river. I had then written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and environment minister Jairam Ramesh. My demand is that the Ganga be declared a national river (by law),” Ms Bharti added.
The BJP leader also demanded that the Ganga Basin Authority meet more frequently to consider ongoing projects and an expert committee be formed to look into checking pollution and cleaning the Ganga.
She said though the government had announced the formation of the Ganga Basin Authority nothing much had been done about its constitution after that. Ms Bharti, who recently launched the “Samagra Ganga” campaign, had written to both Mrs Gandhi and BJP chief Nitin Gadkari seeking their support to save the river, which was accorded the title of national river by the UPA government in 2008. She received favourable replies from them and this prompted her to seek an appointment with Mrs Gandhi.
She said she got an assurance from the Congress chief that she would take up the matter with the Prime Minister and environment minister. Ms Bharti, who has recently rejoined the BJP, is her party’s star campaigner in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Reacting to her meeting with Mrs Gandhi, AICC general secretary in charge of party affairs in UP Digvijay Singh said, “She (Uma Bharti) should keep on meeting Sonia Gandhi, this is my advice. It will to her advantage because the BJP had used and thrown her away. She can never get the position she desired,” he said.
According to BJP insiders, the party will make the Ganga river an issue, in addition to corruption and deteriorating law and order, in the battle for the UP Assembly. A section within the BJP sees Ms Bharti’s meeting with the Congress chief as significant in the sense that the former is trying to shed her hardline Hindutva image and follow former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s line.