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Sukhmani Singh
PATHANKOT, Aug 24: A handful of Akali Dal workers wait for Vinod Khanna, star MP from Gurdaspur. He is scheduled to reach this small rest-house in the backward village of Sathiali for a meeting with party workers en route to the Akali-dominated area of Kahnuwan. As usual he is late, it is difficult for the city-bred Khanna to set out from his Pathankot base before 9.45 a.m. ``Khanna is a man with a higher perspective. It is not possible for him to understand the grassroots problems in one year,'' says a senior Akali leader sarcastically.
Finally, Khanna draws up in a dusty cavalcade, sitting in an air-conditioned Maruti Esteem. He hastily rolls down his window, confers with the Akali leader for a few seconds and presto, the meet is over. He is running late for his campaign meeting.
On his way, the star, dressed in half un-buttoned pale green shirt and black trousers, smokes furiously and explains why he filed his nomination papers only on the last day. ``My party wanted me to contest from South Bombay,but I wanted to complete a five-year term here.''
He rebuts the allegation that he has remained aloof from the people of his constituency, ``I can't sit here all the time. The party needs me to tour the country and go abroad. I went to Washington and requested the Senate to withdraw sanctions against India. But I've been here 30 times in the last 13 months.''
People complain that he has spent his visits sequestered in a scenic tourist bungalow outside Pathankot, surrounded by Scotch whisky, tandoori chicken and cronies. And the three bridges on which he based his poll campaign last time are nowhere in sight. He is quick to claim,``I've sanctioned works worth Rs 213 crore. I bet no MP in the country has even spent 50 lakhs. Do you know New Jersey has agreed to make Pathankot a sister city?'' His campaign aide, Akhil, a bearded landscape designer from Ludhiana, smiles proudly.
It is time to halt at the venue of the meeting -- a gurdwara in village Ballagan. Khanna hastily stubs out his cigarette and walksinside. About 50 men and a handful of women are squatting there and listening to a religious-cum-political sermon being delivered by an Akali leader.
Sitting in the sultry heat without electricity, Khanna squirms in his star attire. He gets up to speak and discovers that the sound system is atrocious. Folding his hands piously, he begins with the Sikh incantation, ``Wahe Guruji ka Khalsa, Waheguruji ki fateh.''
The audience listens while he describes the fall of the Vajpayee government in explicit detail -- like who asked for money etc. He speaks in rudimentary Punjabi interspersed with English. He harks back to the 1984 riots, there is no response. He makes references to Sonia's foreign origin, ``The person who presses the nuclear button is the PM, how can we give this power to a foreigner?''. In true filmi ishtyle, he quotes lines from the immortal movie song ``Mera joota hai Japani..''
He lists the BJP's achievements -- ``film shootings have started in Srinagar, there is aforeign exchange reserve of $ 30 billion.'' The latter goes over the heads of the rural audience as does much of what he says. There is not even a murmur from them. They are clearly as uncomprehending and ill at ease as he looks. He ends by asking them to vote for Vajpayee --``I'm not asking for a vote for myself, I'm asking for Vajpayee.''
The meeting ends and Khanna is whisked off to an adjoining house to partake of refreshments. Here too he does not mingle with the workers but shuts himself up in a room and talks on his cellphone. Some time later, the cavalcade zooms off to another neighbouring village (there are over 200 villages in this area and 11,5715 voters).
Khanna is remarkably ill-informed about the constituency, as for its problems, he shrugs carelessly, ``All villages have the same problems-sanitation, drinking water.'' It is lofty issues like attracting foreign investment and setting up a film institute near Pathankot which interest him.
At Mann village, he speaks a few words of condolenceat the bhog ceremony of an Akali worker, and breaks for lunch. Hundreds of people who have gathered here from neighbouring villages gape at him. He does not reach out to them. Half a day of campaigning is over. On the journey back to Pathankot, he confesses that if he wins this time, ``the first thing I'll do is buy 20 acres, build a farmhouse and rear horses. You know I used to do a lot of farming when I was with Rajneesh. I know a lot about urea and fertilizer.'' Famous last words?
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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