Mother India's daughter searches for Political Space

"Three years ago, I fought an election for my father. But this election is mine. The results of three years of hard work after the death of Sunil Dutt will be seen now," says a confident Priya Dutt, sitting Congress-I Member of Parliament (MP) from Mumbai North West.

In 2005, Priya won against Shiv Sena leader Madhukar Sarpotdar by a handsome margin of 1,70,000 votes. Then only 39 years old, she was five months pregnant, but the verdict was clear as a groundswell of support and sympathy over the death of her actor-father swept her to victory. But Priya is the first to acknowledge that her father's legacy was only the first lap in a very uncertain race.

"My father was a national figure and though he got no ministerial post, he grew to be more than just an MP. He nurtured his constituency and all six MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) were from the Congress-I and were part of his team. When I came into politics, I had to prove what I could do," she says.

For Priya, who was witness to her actress-mother Nargis dying of cancer, the demise of her father was traumatic. Barely two years later, she had to contend with the trial of her brother, actor Sanjay Dutt, under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act and the Arms Act for the possession of illegal weapons during the Mumbai riots of 1992-93.

Convicted under the latter, Sanjay was recently barred from seeking an election to Parliament from Lucknow from the Samajwadi Party by the Supreme Court. The media has been full of stories of the rift between the siblings and Priya had made no secret about her disappointment at Sanjay's choice of a political party.

Publicly, she maintains that the 'family' is united. "Sanjay is my dear brother and, if needed, he will campaign for me," she says cheerfully, oblivious of any political and personal tensions that may result. She is equally unconcerned about talk of rivals Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielding fashion designer Shaina NC against her in the forthcoming election. "She's a friend of mine," says Priya, aware that the South Mumbai resident is at a distinct disadvantage, having lost the MLA election in 2004 to Baba Siddique. The latter was a close aide though there are reports of some differences between the two lately.

With delimitation, her constituency has 18,00,000 voters and is re-christened Mumbai North Central. Priya represents a mixed bag of voters - a majority of whom resides in slums. But there is also a very vocal and active middle and upper class segment. It is also a mixed denominational constituency with an equal number of Muslims and Christians, a substantial Dalit population, North Indians and Maharashtrians, among whose numbers is Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray himself!

But Priya refuses to consider anything that is socially divisive. "I feel everyone's issues are the same - they want schools, better infrastructure and development. I don't even want to get into a caste-wise break-up of voters in my constituency. My slogan is simple: 'nahi dharm ke, nahi jaat ki, pragati or vikas ke muddhe hi' (neither religion nor caste, but progress and development is our goal)," says the young leader.

The slogans come easy today, but it wasn't always so. Despite being with her father throughout his unconventional political career and accompanying him on his marches to Amritsar and to Hiroshima/Nagasaki, the rough-and-tumble of politics is still very alien to her. "I had no intention of getting into politics. My father had died and I was five months pregnant. I used to get angry when people used to talk of the election. I didn't even have time to grieve," she says, recalling the chaos of those days.

Politics was not in her game plan. Married to Owen Roncon, a Mumbai businessman, she worked with Spastic Society and planned to give up that job to take care of the baby she was expecting. As for future plans, she had hoped to set up a small furniture store in time! "But I was amazed to see so many people I didn't even know speaking of how my father had made a difference to their lives. I had once asked my father - 'Why are you in politics? You don't need to be in politics'! And he replied, 'If you think politics is useless, it'll never change. You must use politics for the right reasons'. That stuck in my head and I felt that I should stand for elections only if I could continue to work more at the social rather than political level," she says.

But Priya frankly admits that she is yet to get used to the 'politics' of it all. It is still difficult to tear herself away from her sons and she has refused Parliamentary trips abroad. "I'm not a politically ambitious person. I need to really reach out to people, without any mediators. I must be accessible and ensure that all complaints are dealt with in a week. My website reaches out to the educated members of my constituency and is updated regularly," she says.

The protocol of political life is also something she has to get used to, she says, with a laugh. Wearing trousers and a 'kurti' for her first day in Parliament was only part of it ("I wear trousers most of the time so I just decided I'd be what I am"). The 'poster' wars in her constituency are another. "Have you seen the posters?" she asks. "They now have passport size pictures and sometimes I don't even know the people in the pictures next to my photo! I don't want to deface the city and I keep saying that we should at least use the posters to give out useful information to people instead of birthday wishes."

The poster wars symbolise another world - the gritty and intense turf war that politics is all about. Priya consciously eschews this: "Most of my office staff is non-political. They are the people who deal with my voters, who deal with complaints, update the website and respond to queries." They also identify issues that people need help in - the toilet blocks that need rebuilding, the water pipelines, the school admissions and the myriad problems of slum-dwellers, who form the bulk of her voters.

Land grab and redevelopment are perennial issues and Priya is aware of the criminalisation that marks them. "It is really very sad. In a city like Mumbai, land becomes gold. The poor and senior citizens are unaware and get ensnared by land sharks. I am constantly dealing with complaints of promised redevelopment that doesn't happen," she says, adding that her office days on Tuesdays and Thursdays are jam-packed with complainants. Her office has tried to raise awareness about various government schemes like the Prime Minister's Grant Project (PMGP) and how to tackle municipal issues like water connections or road development.

The 2006 bomb blasts and the November 26 attacks last year have definitely made people more aware and vocal about their security and the need for stability, she feels. She is caustic about Varun Gandhi's comments in his campaign speeches. "I completely condemn them. I am also against campaigns against North Indians or those of the Shri Rama Sene. They are misguiding the youth," she says, expressing agitation over the fact that real issues like unemployment remain unaddressed in the process.

Priya freely acknowledges her husband's support. "I attribute a lot of my success to my husband," she says, adding that she is lucky to have the influence of three major religions in her family. "The bottom line is to be a good human being and the humanity and goodness of all religions helps us to achieve this," she says, hoping of course that such an obvious truth will prevail over divisive tendencies in the political battle to come.

Photo credit: www.priyadutt.org

(© Women's Feature Service)