Mallika's Mahabharata
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20 TEHELKA, THE PEOPLE’S PAPER TEHELKA EXCLUSIVE SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28, 2004 MALLIKA’S MAHABHARATA A great family of nation-builders, scientists, artists. So why is Narendra Modi hounding Mallika Sarabhai? asks MIRA KAMDAR t is impossible in considerable status not for Gujarat these days to personal gain but in defence avoid the smiling face of the core values that once of Chief Minister made Gujarat truly great— Narendra Modi. In the quest for truth, justice Ithis pre-election season, his and a life of dignity for all— image is everywhere, domi- is inconceivable. She is a nating shining posters that living rebuke to a society now adorn even the small- gone cynically corrupt. est villages. Varsh ek. Siddi “People can’t understand unek (One year. Many why I’m not on the take, on achievements), extolls the the make,” Sarabhai mused legend below Modi’s tower- when we last met. “They ing figure. can’t understand why I Modi is nothing if not an don’t keep all my money as image-master. The Gujarat a dancer…” Government’s website is a The Modi government for- hymn of unbridled celebra- gets that Mallika embodies tion of “the leading state in the proud Gujarati tradition, the country”. Modi is por- the Gandhian tradition, cer- trayed as a modest, “mid- tainly, but also that of her in- dle-class” man, devoted to domitable ancestor, Ansuya the people of Gujarat; a Sarabhai. hard-working technocrat When Martin Luther King, whose “closest companion” Jr. visited India, he is said to is his laptop computer. have remarked: “I come to There is no mention of India as a visitor but I come the fact that under Modi’s to Ahmedabad as a pilgrim.” leadership communal vio- It is difficult to imagine the lence was allowed to rage great civil rights’ leader mak- for months after the Godhra Mallika Sarabhai as Draupadi in Peter Brookes’ Mahabharata; (Below) with father Vikram Sarabhai ing that same pilgrimage killings in February 2002, today without a divided that cases filed in the after- human rights lawyer Girish mortals of resisting? are the least in India...” Mercedes of Gujarat’s many heart: with reverence for math of the many horrors Patel, the demonstrators It seems the old adage A cowed labour force godmen and the new tem- Gandhiji, but with sadness committed against the could find no baser slander that “no good deed goes un- aside, like the state’s inter- ples popping up all over. also for the utter destruction Muslims, have been allowed than to chant: “Patel, you punished” is nowhere more linked rivers project, rupees Which helps to explain of almost everything the to languish or have resulted Muslim!” Modi is fond of true than here. A list of vic- seem to flow not only into why Mallika Sarabhai has Mahatma stood for. in blanket acquittals so glar- proclaiming: “Ahmedabad tims of Modi’s silencing tac- the state’s soil but into the become a special target of A ‘Non Resident Gujarati’, ingly implausible as to is no Juhapura”—the city’s tics includes Nafisa Ali and pockets of its Bajrangi the Modi government: Her Mira Kamdar is Senior prompt the Supreme Court Muslim ghetto. Dr Ahmed Shakhil, who ran politicians; out of the palms very existence as a person of Fellow, World Policy to demand the cases be re- But the jewel in this camps for refugees from the of the pious into the conscience who uses her Institute, New York. I heard or moved out of crown of thorns is certainly violence when the govern- Gujarat. Nowhere does the the incessant, ridiculous ment did nothing. website mention the cam- and groundless harassment However, what really THIS IS MY KARMABHOOMI... paign of fear, the systematic of one of Gujarat’s most fa- matters to the Modi govern- silencing of dissent that has mous citizens: Mallika ment is money, and those been waged in Modi’s Sarabhai. who won’t simply let by- Mallika dance about the horrors of after my work with Peter Gujarat against any and “Fear is one of their fa- gones be bygones with re- Sarabhai’s caste violence than of bhakti Brook, who made The every critic. vorite weapons. People are gard to the messy business interview with and the love for Shiva? Mahabharata, seeing the ex- The corruption of the petrified of what Modi and of ethnic cleansing, are Batuk Vora I have been brought up in a traordinary effect that my in- lower judiciary in Gujarat his goons will do,” lamented blocking the money parade. family where people have terpretation of Draupadi had has reached such a level Sarabhai when I met her in That cannot be tolerated at When did you start zeroing fought for what they thought on women across the world. that, for a mere 40,000 ru- Ahmedabad recently. all. in on social issues and use was justice and truth. My pees, bogus charges can be “People don’t realise this Last September, in a the arts to bring attention great aunt, Anasuya, fought What is your ideal, personal- filed against no lesser per- isn’t about me. I am a speech on the occasion of to them? for the rights of mill workers. ly, and for the country? sonnages than Abdul Kalam symbol for them.” the ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global How did it begin? Did it begin My aunt Lakshmi, my grand- There is a saying that is no or VN Khare—an event so Clearly, if Mallika Investors Summit,’ Modi when I was 12 and decided mother Ammu, my other longer valid. When dalits in a shocking it prompted the Sarabhai—internationally said, “If you plant a rupee in that I would follow my fa- aunt Mridula, my cousins village get their eyes gouged Supreme Court Chief renowned dancer, actress, the Gujarati soil, you might ther’s footstep in making my Subhashini and Srilata— out for daring to look at their Justice to ask: “What is hap- choreographer and champi- be able to get a dollar in re- own decisions about what is they all fought for others, for ‘betters’, which is the smoke pening in Gujarat?” on of human rights, the turn!” The CM asked: right and wrong in life irre- what is right. I suppose I and which the fire? When What is happening is the daughter of no less a nation- “What is unique about spective of whether they have done it ever since I can young women get acid calculated creation of a cli- al hero than Vikram Gujarat?” and answered were acceptable to society or remember, though using the thrown at them because mate of fear and intimida- Sarabhai—if she can be si- that it is “its reasonable and not? Or when I realised that arts for activism started they refuse advances from tion enforced through abuse lenced, bankrupted, ha- peaceful labour culture” privilege meant using all you men, which is the smoke and of police and judicial power. rassed into oblivion or exile, where “the man-days lost in had to help others who did- which the fire? Alas, today, Those who won’t toe the of- then what hope have mere Gujarat due to labour strife n’t? When I decided to quit a where there are real fires we ficial line, who stand up for lucrative film career because no longer want to see the equal justice under the law, ‘See that these restrictions are I didn’t like the people in- smoke... are treated as “anti-social volved? When I stood up to My India is one where we can and anti-nationalist”. Or removed as she is not authority or refused to be live as Indians, in truth, called what has become the cowed down by “better under the Constitution, un- worst insult of all in Modi’s a criminal’ sense” in the face of injus- afraid, in equality and digni- Gujarat: a Muslim. When tice? Or when, as a dancer, it ty. All of us. I am putting to Sangh forces staged a Supreme Court made more sense to me to test how far I will go to help demonstration against CHRONOLOGY OF A KAFKAESQUE JOURNEY March 14, lice arrived. They were given side Mallika’s Darpana frauded students of lakhs Gujarati dailies in the Press Inquiries came to an end by 2002. Mallika a one page write-up on the Academy shouted abuses, and that she was a traitor Council for their ‘derogatory July as no clarifications were deposed be- peace meeting. At lunch, threatening to burn down the against Gujarat. Manushi and unethical’ publication of sought. CC’s report was infor- fore the Medha Patkar arrived. No institution. They were patron- Shah’s name was not men- reports against her. mally shown to Darpana’s fi- Minorities formal invitation had been ised by a leader who is now tioned, but the receipts of July 2003. Inquiries started nance in-charge and given a Commission. sent to her. In an hour, mem- the home minister of other students were repro- under additional police com- clean chit. He was told March 20. bers of BJP,Bajrang Dal, Shiv Gujarat. duced. The same story was missioner who demanded that the report can’t be Deposed before NHRC. Sena and Congress, with VK Mallika started getting given to UNI, PTI, but only that all members of the given due to “pressure from a A peace meeting was Saxena of the National death threats. She and her Indian Express, Mumbai, re- group should file affidavits minister”.