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annual world sufi Music Festival held at Humayun’s tomb, took
off. “even after she was out of power, she came to attend it, as any-
one else in the audience. she was always warm and humble with
the artists. she saw the artist behind the art. she didn’t curate,
but she felt the art,” he says. last year, the theme of the festival
‘Yamuna—dariya Prem Ka’ revolved around the river that cuts
through the capital. ali says the artist community was always
associated with government and in dikshit’s absence, they
would feel bereaved. “she knew that if she asked for anything
from anyone even in another party, she would not get no for an
answer. I wanted to see her in a role beyond politics,” says ali.
dikshit did pursue writing, bringing out an autobiography
Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life in which reminiscing her cam-
paigning in uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj parliamentary constituency
in 1984, she says that on some days ‘I certainly felt as if, like alice
in wonderland, I had fallen down a rabbit hole.
Being new to the scene, I found myself being
borne away by the insistence of well-wishers
around.’ Her rivals in uP dubbed dikshit,
an english-speaking political greenhorn, an
outsider. she won the election, entering Parlia-
ment for the first time, and became a minister
in the rajiv gandhi government.
It was in delhi that she spent most of her
life after she left Kapurthala in Punjab where
she was born to an army officer. she studied
at the Jesus and Mary Convent and Miranda
House and married Vinod dikshit, the son of
union Minister uma shankar dikshit. at the
helm in delhi, she realised that the city had to
be administered and responded to with a deep
sense of understanding.
“we could honestly tell it to her face that
she was wrong. she would hear us, however
contrary it would be to her line of thinking.
she would generally go ahead and do what
she thought was right,” recalls Nehru Memo-
rial Museum and library (NMMl) director
shakti sinha, who was principal secretary of
finance and power during her tenure. sinha
was earlier private secretary to former Prime
Minister atal Bihari Vajpayee and joint secre-
tary in his PMO. dikshit took that as an added
advantage saying she would be able to utilise
his experience of working in the PMO.
“Her concern for another human being
dominated her politics. No matter what her
own stress was, she would ensure a visitor
is being properly looked after. Her own
troubles would be forgotten if somebody
else’s problem had to be solved,” says Con-
gress leader Pawan Khera, who had joined
her in 1998, when she was made president of
the delhi Pradesh Congress Committee.
By the end of her third term, dikshit started facing
allegations of involvement in irregularities in contracts for
equipment for street lighting during the 2010 Commonweath
games. The charges were denied by delhi Chief secretary
PK Tripathi. what saddened dikshit, according to those who
have closely known her, was that the Cwg did not get its due
credit. Her 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. she wanted a “full stop” to her
political career after 15 years in power in delhi, only to realise
“there are full stops in other spheres of life. But there are no
full stops in politics.” nBy amita shahPhotograph byRohit ChawlaSheila DikShit
(1938-2019)