It is not a description that many in her own party may agree with. But Congress veteran, former Kerala Governor and ex-CM of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, has revealed that when she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July, she “saw a confident man, with a vision” and “a new language”.
That does not mean an endorsement though, because the 76-year-old was quick to add that it remained to be seen how this vision “would be practically implemented”.
Speaking to The Indian Express on a wide range of issues, including the circumstances in which she quit the Governor’s job this year and the prospect of “change” after the Lok Sabha polls, Dikshit said that she is now involved in heading a Congress committee to manage the commemoration of Jawaharlal Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary on November 14.
Speaking about her meeting with Modi before resigning as Kerala Governor, Dikshit said, “I saw a confident man, with a vision when I went to meet him, but a big ‘but’ is how all this would be practically implemented. He started with ‘achhe din aayenge’. Now that has completely dropped from his vocabulary. His coinage of new phrases is attractive as it is different. But how far is it practically achieveable, a very big question mark hangs over that.”
Asked whether the Congress needed to take its cue from Modi’s manner of functioning, she said, “Whether we should draw from his style or methodology is something we need to wait and assess. It is too early to try and do anything like he does. He is speaking and promising so many things and has a new language, but we need to see what will happen eventually on his promises.”
On the controversy surrounding her resignation as Governor of Kerala, Dikshit said that she had made it clear to the NDA government before putting in her papers that it must keep in mind “the dignity of the post”.
She said that after the NDA government took charge, she too – like other governors appointed during the UPA regime – “got a call from the Home Secretary”.
”I told him two things, the first that it was a Constitutional position and secondly, that it was a position of respect, and I asked him not to call me up again. He did not. But I met Rajnath Singh, the Home Minister, after that and told him that he must give me 10-12 days to wind up and that he must not treat us all like he did Kamla Beniwal (the Gujarat governor and then Mizoram governor) or the Puducherry Lt. Governor. I told him that he can’t just dismiss us. Even if they must not regard the dignity of the person, they must worry about the dignity of the post. He did not say anything. I told him we had not applied for this post but had been chosen to serve as governors.
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