8 5 august 2019openings
H
er glass-walled living room facing the 16th
century Humayun’s tomb was slowly getting filled
with Congress leaders and workers. It was about a
week to go for lok sabha elections in delhi this May.
In a small room, a few steps down, over breakfast, former Chief
Minister sheila dikshit exuded confidence that her govern-
ment’s three terms “changing the face of delhi” would stand
her in good stead. It has, forever. But she and her party lost the
battle in a Modi wave sweeping across states.
One wonders if she had sensed that day the writing on the wall
for Congress. It neither manifested in her calm demeanour nor
her wholehearted campaigning as the 81-year-old leader stepped
out into the heat and dust to take on Bhojpuri singer-turned-BJP
politician Manoj Tiwari and aam aadmi Party’s dilip Pandey in
North-east delhi. For delhiites who saw the capital change over
15 years of her rule, dikshit remains the most memorable chief
minister. Her appeal went beyond politics in a city where several
centuries live simultaneously. when delhi’s longest-serving
chief minister and the country’s longest-serving woman chief
minister passed away last week it was no surprise that opponents,
right from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Chief Minister
arvind Kejriwal, set aside politics to pay homage to her.
It was at a time that delhi was facing an onion crisis, with
prices of the vegetable rising, that dikshit defeated the BJP to
take over the capital’s reins in 1998. Over the next five years, she
focused on development, making it her governance mantra and
the bedrock of her political journey. From being a city in distress,
hankering after an effective public
transport system, roads and clean air,
delhi opened up the throttle making
way for Metro rail, CNg vehicles and
flyovers criss-crossing the city, which
is perpetually bursting at its seams.
Metro man e sreedharan recalls
how she left all technical decisions to
him and never interfered in the work
on the delhi Metro. “I found her ex-
tremely elegant, never played politics
and always supportive of the delhi
metro. I consider her an excellent
administrator,” says sreedharan, who
joined the delhi Metro in November,
1997, less than a year before dikshit
became chief minister. In his 14-year tenure, she was chief minis-
ter for over 13 years.
when a compartment in the train was reserved for ladies, dik-
shit was disappointed and asked why the Metro was not enforc-
ing gender equality. “when I explained the reasons, she accepted
the decision gracefully,” says sreedharan. last month when the
aaP government proposed making travel in public transport
in delhi free for women, dikshit dismissed it as a move which
should be seen politically. sreedharan recalls another instance,
soon after she took over as chief minister, when the alignment of
line number one from Tees Hazari to Pulbangash was changed by
him to reduce the number of structures to be acquired. Those af-
fected were up against the delhi Metro rail Corporation (dMrC)
and demanded that the original alignment be restored. dikshit
called a meeting in which sreedharan explained the reasons.
after listening to him, she said, “I will not question the technical
decision taken by Mr sreedharan as I feel he is the best person to
decide on such matters. so the new alignment will stand. I un-
derstand your problems and will take necessary steps to resolve
them.” The protestors accepted it and dispersed.
“I had access to her any time of the day whenever I had a
problem with the state government. she highly appreciated
my emphasis on punctuality and cleanliness of trains and
stations,” says sreedharan. It was during Vajpayee’s regime that
delhi got its Metro. dikshit made sure political differences did
not come in the way of governance, her constant refrain being
people choose leaders to deliver on promises.J
usT lIKe sHe left the Metro to
sreedharan, she encouraged arts
in the city but left its creative pursuits
to the artists. Filmmaker Muzaffar ali,
who directed Umrao Jaan, says it was
rare to find a person like her respond-
ing to ideas in a huge space like delhi.
when he came to delhi from luc-
know in 2000, she met him and asked
if there was anything she could do.
He said delhi was a city of sufi saints.
dikshit was supportive of any effort
to bring out the essence of delhi, an
amalgam of diverse cultures. That is
how Jahan-e-Khusrau, a three-dayLeader with a Capital L
Dikshit’s concern for the
environment, in a city
where pollution levels have
risen menacingly, reflected
even in her last wish. She
was cremated in a CNG
crematorium, introduced
in Delhi during her tenure