The picture which shook MP State Congress Party

This picture taken by me on 9th April 2002, took the then ruling Congress party by storm and gave the much needed imputes to the main opposition in the state of Madhya Pradesh the Bharatiya Janata Party. Government School children from various poverty and drought struck villages from Madhya Pradesh State had been sitting right from 9 in the morning on the street leading to the Chief Minister Raja Digvijay Singh’s official residence in Bhopal.
Since I had gone there to cover the protest by the children sitting on the pavements in the noon, I asked a couple of policemen standing on guard if the Chief Minister had gone home for his lunch and afternoon siesta, they replied that he has left his office and was heading home. So even I waited for the Chief Minister, thinking that he would meet these children on his way home.
The motorcade of the Chief Minister Digvijay Singh came first ringing the shrieking siren that the Raja is following them shortly. I got ready with a wide angle lens and saw the Raja’s car approach the squatting children, so I quickly took some three frames, while the most of the fotog’s present there ran behind his car thinking he would stop and step out. But instead the car kept going and in a flash he had entered his home gates which were quickly shut behind him by the alert cops on duty. The whole number of fotog’s had missed a good picture. This same picture was xeroxed the next day by the BJP youth wing as they protested the apathy shown by Raja Digvijay Singh on these starving children, who had braved the summer heat waiting for him to hear their pleas.

The Caption: Chief Minister Digvijay Singh seeing, from his car, a sit-in by school children from various villages on Tuesday demanding that the State Government implement the free mid-day meal scheme ordered by the Supreme Court.

Uma Bharati 'Through the Lens'

From Babri to Bhopal, it has been a momentous pilgrim's progress for Uma Bharti, the fiery sanyasin who became the first woman chief minister of India's largest state after sending to political exile her rival raja (Digvijay Singh).
Adoringly referred to as "didi” (elder sister) by her supporters, the 44-year-old stormy petrel of BJP, who steered her party to a landslide victory in the Assembly polls, was born in a backward peasant family at Dunda village of Tikamgarh district in the state.
Uma, who stormed to power promising the moon to the power starved and road-less people of the state, was initiated into politics at a tender age when she came in contact with late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia and leaders of RSS and VHP.
She had developed a strong inclination towards spiritual pursuits in her childhood and achieved fluency in religious epics including the Gita and the Ramayana. Which helped her in commanding the status of a demi-god at the peak of the Ayodhya movement.

These are some of the images of the former firebrand leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party Uma Bharati who was thrown out of the sangh parivar led party for speaking her mind out. Since I worked in Bhopal form 2000 to 2006 with the Hindustan Times, I have closely followed this mass leader who was politically marginalized by her seniors and juniors within the party fold after she single handedly sweated it out bring the party to power in the 2002 Madhya Pradesh State Assembly elections.



This picture was taken in New Delhi during Uma Bharati's stint as the Union Sports Minister during the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government when the she wished the Indian Cricket Team under captain Md Azzaruddin for the World Cup in 1999.




Uma Bharati feeds her pet dog while on a hunger strike for the welfare of the daily wagers in Bhopal at a makeshift tent which was erected overnight when she decided to fast to death if their demands were not met by the then Congress led Digvijay Singh Government (left) Police stand guard over the two persons who had tried to attack her during her fast unto death (right) even as Uma answers her phone calls informing her well wishers that she is hale and hearty.

Kalpana Parulakar of the Congress party who was supporting Uma Bharati on the daily wagers issue being arrested at 3 in the morning, as later in the day Uma Bharati addressing the media after she had wood winked the police who were all over the city trying to arrest her too (left) Uma Bharati takes a sip of juice from Ramkali Bai the mother of a daily wager who had committed suicide after her week long fast and when the Digvijay Singh government buckled to the pressure by the Central government (right).

The sweet Victory after the hard work: Uma Bharati being welcome by BJP party workers at the Madhya Pradesh state BJP Headquarters after she routed the Congress Party and send Digvijay Singh packing to New Delhi.

After a quick visit to Tirupati and tonsure her head for the victory she got for her party, and later straight from Tirupati she went to th Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain to offer her prayers (left) as she meets a delegation of Christian association members during her Chief Ministership to sort ou the attacks by the RSS on their community in the tribal belt of Bhil (right).

Uma Bharati gets back to limelight after six months of hard work ensuring that the roads and other issues like water, power and issuing jobs to the educated youth, she was asked by the Hubli court to come for her misuse of the National flag. This case itself seemed like a plant to dismantle her from the seat of power, which she also knew but trusted a few old vanguards of the party to keep her seat safe till she returned.

Uma Bharati announces her resignation from the post of Chief Minister ship under the assurance by Arun Jetlie the party General Secy (left) as she sits next to Babulal Gaur whom she had hand picked to keep the Chief Minister chair till her return after the court proves her innocence, but only to be cheat and thus forcing her to split the party but asked her well wishers to stay within the party fold.

Even before she could take the train to Hubli to attend the case against her and be jailed for a misuse of the National Flag her supporters where overshadowed by the larger than life size hoarding of her new appointee Babulal Gaur.

After nearly three weeks of herself in prison and then the Hubli court dropping all cases against her, her supporters came back to the streets welcoming her to the Madhya Pradesh state capital (left) and then after another month of dialogue with the party central leadership she addresses the media to tell them that she was fooled by the party and her senior leaders in the state so that they could eat the cake she had fought to win all along for them.

Bhagoria - Festival of Hue and Color

This colorful festival of the Bhils and Bhilalas, particularly in the district of West Nimar and Jhabua, is actually in the nature of a mass svayamvara, a marriage market, held on the various market days falling before the Holi festival in month of March every year. As the name of the festival indicates, - bhag, to run, - after choosing their partners, the young people elope and are subsequently accepted as husband and wife by society through predetermined customs.

It is not always that boys and girls intending to marry each other meet in the festival for the first time. In a large number of cases the alliance is already made between the two, the festival providing the institutionalized framework for announcing the alliance publically. The tradition is that the boy applies gulal, red powder, on the face of the girl whom he selects as his wife. The girl, if willing, also applies gulal on the boy's face.
This may not happen immediately but the boy may pursue her and succeed eventually.

Earlier, the Bhagoria Haat also the place for settling old disputes; open invitations were sent to enemies for a fight in the HAAT. Bloody battles used to be quite common in the past but today police and administration do not allow people to go to the HAAT armed.

The Bhagoria haat also coincides with the completion of harvesting, adding to it the dimension of being an agricultural festival as well. If the crops have been good, the festival assumes an additional air of gaiety.

In the life of the Bhils and Bhilalas, Bhagoria is not merely one festival but in fact a series of fairs held one by one at various villages on their specific market days, commencing eight days before Holi.